STUFF ABOUT ME (<– Joey’s idea. He was 12 at the time.)
The Gene Pool
I descend from a long line of quilters, sewers and artists. My paternal grandmother embroidered and quilted, my maternal grandmother crocheted, my mom and aunts sewed all their clothes including suits for themselves and their husbands, and three of my uncles were art directors for various advertising companies in NYC. I am humbled to be able to carry on the family creative tradition.
The Evolution of a Quilter
My grandmas and my mom gave me their best efforts, they really did, but it wasn’t until my mid-twenties that I bought a sewing machine and tried my hand at clothing. Having no friends that sewed and living away from mom, fitting myself proved to be a nightmare and I lost interest. While browsing through a used book store, I happened upon Debbie Mumm’s Christmas quilting book. The pattern for my first quilt came from that book. I machine pieced it and hand quilted it. The quilt didn’t have to fit anyone, it was finished, I liked it and I was on my way, sewing, shopping, stashing, joining guilds, entering shows, and to my amazement winning ribbons.
In 2006 I was looking for ways to make money doing something I was passionate about (unlike the flight attendant job I had retired from after 23 years). I asked a woman I knew who had two longarm machines if she would hire me to run one and she agreed. Since I was working for an experienced quilter, my learning curve was at a 10 degree angle. I accomplished a lot in that time including winning more ribbons. (See AWARDS page.) After being laid off from that job in September of 2010, I opened my own studio with a Gammill Classic Plus (that has a really cool paint job) and an Inteliquilter computerized system. A year later I added another Classic Plus with an Inteliquilter system.
The New Digs
My clean, friendly, pet free and smoke free studio is located in Amesbury MA.
Beginning Quilters of the World Unite (
<– The graphic was my husband’s idea.)
One of my specialties is working with new quilters and their quilts. This art form is too much fun to allow early mistakes to discourage a second or fiftieth quilt. If your borders resemble roller coaster track or some of your blocks are at the same elevation as Mount Fuji’s summit do not despair. I excel in this area. With a little extra coaxing and support you will have a finished product worthy of all your hard work.
