Musings (Blog)

The Rest is History!

Just a little bit of background on the journey of Mystery Quilts Anonymous. I find this post hard to write as I am not one to toot my own horn. I just wanted to let you know a little more about me and this place I have found… home and happy here with you.

As the back of the books will tell you (and a little in the bio here on the website), you will find that I am an United States born New Zealander. New Zealand it a set of islands about 1,200 miles southeast of Australia with a vast heritage and large range of climates. Shane and I were married in 1980 and lived in Texas, Washington State, and Vermont before packing up our little family (three children) in 1992 and moving to the other side of the world (literally). We love our country, having had permanent residency here since then. This year we applied for our citizenship as there is a dual citizenship agreement between the two countries as we can better afford the costs now that it is just the two of us.

I love designing teddy bears and quilts. I have hundred of hand made teddy bears all over our house from about 4 inches tall to 24 inches. Each with a unique face and body adaptations. The flow into quilts was a bit tricky with the straightforward maths and measuring. The first few quilts I designed were just playing with colour and trying for a different affect with fabrics. I have grown into playing with colour and shapes for fun… Looking at my app, there are over 100 different quilts. I think my hardest job now is deciding what to do next! They are all so fun!

A few years ago, I found I couldn’t get enough of quilting. I was totally addicted to buying fabric with no pattern in mind. I couldn’t find enough patterns out there to keep me busy and out of trouble. I found to feed my habit, pattern costs were adding up. I became addicted to the idea of the mystery quilt and could never find enough. Deciding to “give it a go” with designing, I found I absolutely love it and using my gift of giving. Creating the website and sharing the patterns with you became my happy place and has been since July 2018. I see no end to the journey as we work together to make some beautiful masterpieces and heirlooms for family, friends, and charities.