Bio

A native New Yorker who also lived in Alaska, I started sewing in the late 1980s when I traded in my credit cards for a new sewing machine. I figured I could make the clothes I was spending so much money buying and my dearest husband, Stephen, reluctantly agreed. In 1989, after sewing clothes for two years, I made my first quilt from a pattern published in Better Homes & Garden magazine. A new addiction was born! As a completely self-taught closet quilter for many years, I solitarily devoured how-to books and visited shows to hone my skills, a process which involved making every mistake possible in quilting and which now humbles and guides me when I teach my students new quilting techniques. I particularly love contemporary art quilts and traditional pieced quilts updated in today’s fabrics. 

Five years ago I plunged into teaching and found a new love: working with anyone wanting to learn and create. Few pleasures top watching someone realize a new skill and their pride of accomplishment and I am honored to sometimes help quilters with that.

I am currently designing and writing my second quilt book for C&T Publishing. Besides being a freelance newspaper journalist, I also am a field editor for American Quilter magazine, I teach and lectures for guilds and retreats and am developing a line of patterns. Married to Stephen for 20 years, we have a young daughter, Samantha, four cats and live in Simi Valley, California.