For years, I thought quilting was just the technical finish to piecing. I'd spend months perfecting a quilt top, then send it off to a longarmer—and something would always feel slightly off when I got it back. The quilting was beautiful, but it wasn't quite mine.

The turning point came with a quilt in 2020. I'd fallen in love with Kona's Color of the Year—Enchanted, a deep magical green—and designed an entire quilt around it. When I picked it up from the longarmer, I was confused. Nothing was wrong, but it didn't resonate. That's when I realized: I'd communicated my excitement about the color and pattern, but I'd never articulated what I wanted the quilt to feel like. I'd unknowingly handed over crucial design decisions without realizing how much impact quilting has on a quilt's final story.

I started renting longarm time in 2021 to understand the craft from the inside. In 2024, I launched Imagination Quiltworks—a celebration of that "one little spark" of creative vision that deserves to be honored all the way to the binding.