If you had told me ten years ago—or even five years ago—that I would be teaching and loving it, I would have laughed.
Most people don’t believe this, but in high school I was incredibly shy. I preferred not to be seen or heard and was perfectly happy blending into the background. I know, I know… hard to imagine now! I just wasn’t that person. Honestly, I don’t think there was anything at that age I could have confidently taught someone else. I always joke that I can barely read or write—but numbers? Numbers have always been my thing. As it turns out, that love of numbers is what drew me toward quilting.
Just recently, one of our regulars burst out laughing when I casually used the Pythagorean theorem to figure out the size of add-on squares for a square-in-a-square block that wasn’t a standard size. (Yes… I really did that.)
After the pandemic, I knew I wanted to get customers back into the store for classes. We had bought the shop just five months before everything shut down, which meant we never really had a chance to build a solid class schedule. During the pandemic, we sold a lot of Creative 1.5 embroidery and sewing machines - many delivered or picked up through a drive-up, contactless option. I thought this group of people would be my first audience. (They weren’t my very first class, but they were definitely the first group I wanted to build a whole program around.)
So, we got creative.
I was still new to embroidery myself, but I started researching, testing, asking questions, and using every resource I could find to develop embroidery classes—along with a few other classes - to grow our class list and get people in the door, in the classroom, and wanting more. Somewhere in that process, I discovered something completely unexpected.
I love teaching.
Whether I’m actually good at it or not, I’ll let someone else decide—but I absolutely love trying.
Teaching, I’ve learned, isn’t about having all the answers. Sometimes it’s learning right alongside your students. Sometimes it’s trial and error… and more than a few ripped-out stitches. And sometimes it’s taking knowledge you already have - like a love of math - and applying it in a brand-new way to make creating easier.
I continue to challenge myself to learn from others, and I try to share what I know and what I’ve learned in return. My hope is to spark curiosity and excitement in a new generation of quilters, crafters, and artists - while keeping the present generation motivated to keep creating and sharing their art.
I’m not exactly sure what success looks like yet -but I figure I’ve got the next twenty years to find out. Helping you make memories, one stitch at a time!
