I’m just going to rewind a little bit to give you more of a background of my story. I was born and raised outside of Philadelphia, PA. Throughout high school, I was a weird combination of art student mixed with athlete, not quite fitting into either category. Ultimately, I ended up going to art school at VCU in Richmond, VA where I studied illustration and graphic design. I always loved drawing but I knew that there were more secure jobs in the design world.

Jump forward 4-years, post graduation, where I followed a boy (now fiancé) to Houston, TX and started working full time as a designer! We stayed in Houston for several years where I had a few different jobs but was starting to get an itch for working for myself.

In 2019 (pre-covid era), that same boy and I decided we wanted out of Texas. He landed a job here in Seattle and we decided to pick up our belongings and move across country without ever having visited. And let me tell you, I was SO excited. Around this time I was feeling lost and was struggling heavily with OCD (I didn’t know it at the time), so a new start sounded amazing — especially surrounded by all the beauty that WA brings.

We made our journey to the PNW where, although everything I ever asked for, I didn’t have a job, or friends, and my OCD started spiraling out of control. I had just landed an illustration job at Microsoft and was looking forward to finally going into an office to meet new people — and then COVID hit.

My depression and anxiety was at an all time high — mostly due to undiagnosed OCD and ADHD. I needed something to do with my restless hands, so I picked up the first quilt I started to make over 6 months prior and decided to finally quilt and bind it (the steps I was most nervous about). It was like a switch went off, I finally found something that got me out of my head.