My passion for quilting can be traced back to a very young age when my mother would sit me at her feet while she and her friends quilted at neighbourhood quilting bees. I still have memories of looking up and watching the quilt being hand stitched by the ladies seated around the quilt frame.  A few years on, I learned to sew on a treadle machine and so began my lifelong enjoyment of sewing.

Since I’d seen quilts being made as a child, I thought I had what it took to make my first quilt, a baby quilt for a good friend. In reality, I made every mistake in the book and after gifting it I was even more determined to learn all I could about quilting.  

Many years and quilts later, I began to wonder why some quilts were so much more striking than others. This led to me down another rabbit hole: how quilters apply design elements and principles to their quilts to make a statement, whether it’s one of beauty, tradition, abstraction or modernism.  

I began making samples to unravel that mystery and one day, as I was struggling to convey the enormous scale of a Nepalese landscape in a small sample quilt, I snapped a photo of my Jack Russell and made my first animal portrait. Seeing her image take form as the fabric bits were added and feeling her spirit come through in the final portrait stirred something in me and I knew I’d found a new passion. Little did I know how endlessly fascinating it would be and that it would lead me on a path to become a pet portrait artist.

Since making that portrait of my dog, a profound feeling of connection evolves with every single pet portrait I make. And nowadays, I have the added pleasure of teaching others so they too, can experience that deep connection as they make their very own unique pet portrait.

I live in beautiful Victoria, B.C.  When I’m not making portraits, tending my urban garden or throwing a ball for my Jack Russell, Tashi, I am usually riding my bicycle. And, if the travel gods are smiling on me, that means my husband and I are riding along a country road somewhere in Europe.

I welcome you to contact me at collagequilter@icloud.com.