I’m just going to rewind a little bit to give you more of a background of my story. I was born and raised outside of Philadelphia, PA. Throughout high school, I was a weird combination of art student mixed with athlete, not quite fitting into either category. Ultimately, I ended up going to art school at VCU in Richmond, VA where I studied illustration and graphic design. I always loved drawing but I knew that there were more secure jobs in the design world. Jump forward 4-years, post graduation, where I followed a boy (now fiance) to Houston, TX and started working full time as a designer! We stayed in Houston for several years where I had a few different jobs but was starting to get an itch for working for myself.

In 2019 (pre-covid era), that same boy and I decided we wanted out of Texas. He landed a job here in Seattle and we decided to pick up our belongings and move across country without ever having visited. And let me tell you, I was SO excited. Around this time I was feeling lost and was struggling heavily with OCD (I didn’t know it at the time), so a new start sounded amazing - especially surrounded by all the beauty that WA brings.

We made our journey to the PNW where, although everything I ever asked for, I didn’t have a job, or friends, and my OCD started spiraling out of control. I had just landed an illustration job at Microsoft and was looking forward to finally going into an office to meet new people and then COVID hit… and work from home life was officially enacted. My depression and anxiety was at an all time high - mostly due to undiagnosed OCD and ADHD. I needed something to do with my restless hands, so I picked up the first quilt I started to make over 6-months prior and decided to finally quilt and bind it (the steps I was most nervous about). It was like a switch went off, I finally found something that got me out of my head… something that sparked me creatively and gave me a reason to be excited. I was officially hooked!

In case you're curious and want to check out my illustration portfolio - here it is!

Now, I’m not going to say quilting cured my mental health issues - because let’s be honest, lots of therapy and treatment are the true heros in this story, but quilting definitely played a huge role in helping me turn my life around.

I think I roughly made five quilts before I knew I wanted to design my own. As a trained artist and graphic designer this NEED came fast and furious… and thats when the New Years Kiss Quilt was born! The rest is history.