I was always making something with my hands as a child in upstate New York. I liked fashion and art, but our family usually was on a tight budget, so I was not encouraged to indulge those interests. By the time I was a teenager, I learned to sew my own clothes, spending all my babysitting money on fabric and thread. The fabric store was my happy place, full of colors, textures, patterns and notions. I would almost hyperventilate over the endless possibilities whenever I went there.

In college, I studied social sciences, but took some art design classes as electives. I considered changing majors, but was not encouraged to pursue art as a career by my practical-minded family. My interest in quilting came decades later, when a friend gave me a book about art quilts. It was a revelation—immediately, I knew I wanted to make art quilts myself! Of course, I had no idea what I was doing, but I started looking at lots of images and taking classes at Quilting By the Lake and Hudson River Valley Art Workshops where I have been able to learn from some of the very quilters whose work was in that first book that ignited my desire to quilt. I have learned to dye and print fabric, as well as many technical and artistic skills that inform my work.

Now that I am retired, I can quilt as much as I want! Making art quilts brings me joy, challenge, and a new community of artist friends (my quilting people, or "queeps”).