How I got started with sewing

  My first memory of sewing is trying—unsuccessfully—to hand-sew clothes for my Barbie dolls. I wasn’t very good at it, and honestly, it didn’t feel very promising.

Years later, while working at Walmart, I met my best friend, Rachel. She gifted me her Kenmore sewing machine, and for the first time, sewing felt doable. I learned how to sew squares… and that was about it.

In the late 1990s, I became fascinated with Sunbonnet Sue appliqués. I made several, but somewhere along the way—during a move or maybe a yard sale—I lost them. Those were difficult years, and sewing quietly slipped out of my life.

Around 2011, my aunt Dagmar introduced me to April, and everything changed. April re-sparked my interest in sewing, and I took a class with her where I completed a row-by-row quilt—my very first quilt. From that moment on, I was hooked, and I’ve been sewing ever since.