I was born into a sewing family and I grew up next door to my grandmother and her sisters who were my great aunts and so I I knew about it before it was even a thing I thought everyone everyone quilted and I was a small town there was always somebody getting married baby being born thus all the quilt frames would come up and as a little girl I would play under the frames until I was old enough to thread needles and then I would they would hand me down the needles underneath the frames and I
would thread them and hand them back up and then pretty soon I thought anyway I was old enough to put stitches in the quilt and probably they probably took them out a little bit after I left I don't know because I never knew that until after we did that for my little sisters after they quilted and so we would take them out and fix them and then until they got old enough you know and so I'm sure that's probably what happened with me I love vintage sewing equipment because they don't make it like they used
to anymore and the cuteness factor is important to me but more important is how it works I love Singer featherweights I learned to sew on a singer and I'd love to featherweights because they're portable and I I do go to sew day a lot and I teach a lot and so I take my feather weights with me this one of course is painted with automotive paint and it was normally black but it really needed a paint job so it got a new updo I display my all of my fun sewing things and my studio some
of them are in you know throughout my home but in my studio I have shelves that I put all my fun things I'd like to be surrounded with color and vintage things and spend most of time in my studio so that's where I put them my style of quilting is vintage probably because I grew up around vintage fabric that wasn't vintage then you know but my as as quilters we all save our stash and so a lot of the fabric that my grandmother and her sisters used were feed sack prints that were in their stash
and I grew up in late 60s early 70s where everything was flowers and gingham and so that's my style as well because my mother sewed our clothes until we were old enough she taught us to sew until we were old enough to sew along with her or so our own and that's typically what I chose is ginghams Daisy's flowers little geometric prints and so as I got old enough to piece my own quilt blocks there wasn't a lot of a hundred percent cotton fabric available in the shops anymore and so I would just use my
grandmother's and my aunt's and I just got used to sewing with vintage style and vintage colors and I still love them to this day was contacted by Riley Blake and I went in and interviewed with Brett and I really was impressed with Brett really thought a lot of him and then I met his wife Cindy and I decided to go with Riley Blake because I loved that they were right next to me in Utah I live here in Utah as well and I was used to working with a company at that time they were just
starting out and I was used to working with a company Provo craft that was hearing Utah's well and I started working with them when they first started out and I worked with them for 12 years and that was a wonderful relationship and and I just after a meeting Brett and Cindy I kind of had the feeling that it was going to be the same kind of experience so that's why I went with Riley Blake and have not regretted it since I named my company being my bonnet because my grandma used to say that a lot
meaning she had a you know an idea or a little bit of energy maybe that she wanted to get something accomplished that day and when I came to the point where I decided to do my own patterns and I knew I needed a pattern name I'd already designed a pattern I mean you just slap a name for my company on there real quick and that's just what came into my mind being my bonnet to me means an idea buzzing around in my head trying to get out and that's pretty much what it's like so I've
really my whole life have made things I'm a goal-oriented person so I always instead of picking up a needle and thread and saying I'm just going to sew this I I always wanted a purpose or a goal like I'm going to give this as a gift I'm going to hang this on on this wall I'm going to make it for my aunt my sister my brother or something and so after I was married and continued on making things I set goals to what I was what I was going to do with the money that I
earned so I remember one time I painted a whole bunch of things went to a boutique until I sold enough to buy a dining-room table that I had my eye on and then as soon as that you know was bought then I would think of something else and continue on and I still do that to this day I am a goal person and that's why I create for the love of it but then I like to have a goal in the end I really don't know what my life would be like if I didn't design
that's what I do that's who I am I'm a designer and I love it [Music] you [Music]
