A native Californian, Karen started sewing at the age of 9, when her mother enrolled her in a summer sewing class at the local Singer store.  She continued to sew through junior high and high school, taking more classes in clothing construction and tailoring.  Because of this love of color, texture and textiles, she taught herself to knit and also started taking weaving classes.

She made her first quilt at the age of 19 when she saw an antique quilt on a friend’s bed and decided that she wanted a quilt for her bed also!  Fast forward 30 years, a life-long dream came true when she started working in a fabric quilt shop.  It was finally, at this point, she was fully able to indulge her love of fabric and quilting.

She was introduced to Judy Niemeyer’s quilts when a customer brought in a finished Summer Solstice.  She had already been exposed to traditional paper-piecing, but was attracted to Judy’s patterns because of the attention to detail, precision, organization and perfection in the finished results.  At that point she decided to work towards becoming a certified instructor so that she could share Judy’s methods with others.