I am an artist, quilter, and fabric designer who loves to teach others to create beautiful things. I have been crafting for as long as I can remember, and my mom taught me to sew when I was in elementary school. Since then, I’ve developed my artistic skills in many different areas and found a way to turn it into my career. I have written books about hand lettering, doodling, and quilting, and enjoy teaching hands-on workshops across the country through venues like Pinners Conference and Quilted Virtual Summit. I also share quick and easy craft projects on a variety of lifestyle television shows including Good Day PA, Studio 5, Hello Iowa, Arizona Midday, and AM Northwest. In addition to creating projects for our home and for my job, I also work with Blessing Bears Ministry to sew handmade teddy bears that are gifted to people in need of encouragement.

My favorite Surebonder product is the Cordless Mini Glue Gun with Detail Tip. I love the convenience of the cordless feature, and the detail tip is just the perfect size for adding little eyes and tails to projects like our blessing bears!

I am inspired visually, so I often find myself wanting to recreate something I’ve seen in my own style. Whether it’s a project from Pinterest or something for sale in a store, if an idea catches my eye, I want to find a way to make it my own. The hardest thing for me about the creative process is that I am running out of room to store all of my craft supplies! I am also still waiting for the clean-up fairy to come behind me and clean up the mess that comes with creating.

I admire so many other creators; my social media feeds are filled with folks whose work I love to see. Currently, I’m doing a lot in the quilting world, so I’m inspired by fellow designers like Stephanie Organes, Bev McCullough (Flamingo Toes), Edyta Sitar (Laundry Basket Quilts), Eye Candy Quilts, Giucy Giuce, Fancy That Design House, and many others. I love their use of color, the creativity in their designs and their patterns, and the way they continually find new ways to make quilting appealing to a modern audience.

If I feel burned out in one creative area, I typically take a break and try to do something totally different, like doodle or do a paint by number just to give my hands something to do while my mind takes a break.

Plenty! The biggest lesson I've learned is to never stop learning. If something is a fail or a struggle, find a class or a video or a tutorial and teach yourself how to do it better. Keep practicing and keep trying. Perfect is an unattainable goal, but practice always makes progress.

Jump in! There are SO many ways to create, and there’s no wrong way to begin.

My newest venture is in the world of fabric design. I have partnered with Andover Fabrics and my first collection of 24 coordinating fabrics, Bloom and Sew, will be available in stores this July. My second collection, Sunny Honey, will follow in September. Learning to turn my doodles into surface designs is one of those things I had to take a class on and practice, but it paid off big time! I can’t wait to see what people will create with these fabrics!