About Wendy...

I had an early interest in crafts and tried my hand at knitting, needlepoint, cross-stitch and, yes I must admit, even macramé. But when I made a baby quilt for my first child in 1982 I discovered my real passion. Finally, an excuse to buy some of that lovely fabric without having to figure out how to wear it! Sewing had always fascinated me, but I am not, nor have I ever been known for my fashion sense. The big plus with making quilts is that they don't need to fit.

My husband and I owned and ran a graphic design/printing business in San Diego for 10 years. Between that enterprise and raising 2 children, I didn't have much time for quilting, but I joined a guild and started taking every class I could squeeze in. It was a small step from graphic design to quilt design, but I honed my skills on the computer without actually using very much of my growing fabric stash.

In 1992, I was part of a friendship group at Hope Methodist Church in Rancho Bernardo that began making prayer quilts. A few years later, after moving to Poway, I organized what is now Prayers & Squares, The Prayer Quilt Ministry. This interfaith non-profit organization now has over 800 chapters world-wide. I began designing and teaching simple, strip-pieced patterns to be used for prayer quilts. My stash was finally being used at a great rate but even more fabric was being donated, mostly in the form of scraps. Figuring out what to do with mountains of scraps was my next challenge, and I continued to design patterns with this goal in mind. 

I started doing guild lectures a few years ago, choosing the topic "Scrap Management". I use my collection of antique quilts, plus some of my own creations to illustrate and teach some of what I has learned in the process of making loads of "scrappy" prayer quilts. I love coming up with ideas for improved piecing techniques, and I invented a system of cut-after-you-sew tools called Quilters' TRIMplates®. My specialty is a fast, easy and accurate method for making the traditional "Storm at Sea" pattern without using templates or paper piecing. My book, "A New Light on Storm at Sea Quilts: One Block, An Ocean of Desgin Possibilities" was realeased by C&T Publishing in March, 2009.

After selling the printing business, I worked for several years as a graphic designer, first for Palomar Community College, then designing quilting books for ASN (American School of Needlework) Publishing in San Marcos. I now work as a freelance book editor and illustrator for C&T Publishing. I have been teaching adult ed quilting classes for Palomar College since 2003, and am still working hard at whittling down that stash and scrap collection. I enjoy bring a part of the music ministry at my church, The Community Church of Poway as a flute player, a member of the Kairos Singers and the church choir. Oh yes, and someday I hope to actually make a quilt for my own bed. (Never have had one of those...)