I am relatively new to quilting, having started literally in 2010 when I retired from a management position. Suffice it to say that after an 18 month run volunteering in dog rescue, still a cause near and dear to me, I decided I would rather be quilting….so here I am. I live in central Pennsylvania where the mere idea of contemporary quilting is foreign to most people. Sometimes I take my contemporary wall quilts into a local fabric store for show and tell. They are very respectful and express kind words but can’t seem to wrap their heads around quilts without patches, no patterns, and curved lines. It takes awhile for them to figure out even how I put my quilts together!

I’m self taught, compliments of several books which were invaluable. My favorite books in this journey into contemporary quilting have been:
Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston
Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen
Rule Breaking Quilts by Kathryn Schmidt
New Cuts for New Quilts by Karla Alexander

I started by making similar projects from the books (I was never good at out and out duplicating so nothing I made every looked quite like the picture!). I always would think “well, what would happen if I tried this….” The freedom to think way outside the box fascinated and intrigued me as I’ve never been very compliant in my life.

Now that our adult children are successfully launched, I took over one of our upstairs bedrooms and turned it into a sewing studio. In 2011 my husband surprised me with a Bernina 230. This was a HUGE step up from my 35 year old Singer but as I explored quilting and especially free motion quilting, I decided I really wanted a different machine. Today I sew on a Bernina 750 and love it!! Of course, that Bernina dealer is also a fabric store and lucky me, it is 3 miles from my house.

So that is a thumbnail sketch of how I got into contemporary quilting which is now a passion, a hobby, and a retirement business. My studio is filled with fabulous fabrics of which there are never enough. I awake every morning and can’t wait to start sewing or designing.