I grew up in America’s Dairyland.  Not on a farm but in its largest city—Milwaukee.  It seems like I’ve always sewed.  I started out making clothes for my Barbie doll by hand.  My mother, who sewed most of my clothes as long as I can remember, had me practice straight lines and circles on the sewing machine before I tackled a pattern.  During high school I took Home Economics classes where I honed the skills that my mother had taught me.

 

 A lot of the gifts I made for family and friends were hand sewn items. In the late 1970s I caught the cabbage patch craze.  From there I moved on to bears from commercial patterns.

 

When I left Wisconsin I wanted to leave a remembrance for some friends at work.  The only fabric I was familiar with was the acrylic fur I saw in local fabric stores.  I found working on acrylic fabric challenging because it was so thick and hard to work with but I enjoyed the process of making the bears so the challenge was worth it.  I had caught the bear bug! 

 

One day while I was grocery shopping I walked past the magazine rack and saw a Teddy Bear and Friends magazine.  “Wow,” I thought to myself, “a whole magazine devoted to bear making!”  As I leafed through the pages I found a store on the other side of town that had bear making supplies and knew I just had to see it.  There I was introduced to the wonderful world of mohair.  This fabric was a dream to work on.  The only concern I had at the beginning was the cost.  I was afraid to cut into something that was ten times as expensive.  Gradually I was lured by the many styles and colors available and my concerns faded away.  Now I’ll do just about anything to a piece of mohair, short of running over it with my car, to get the effect I want.

 

I am now loving my life in Athens, Georgia.  When I’m not creating creatures, I enjoy spending time with my family—especially my grandchildren.  I’m also a writer, a hula hooper, a piano player, and a choral singer.