The most important factors shaping my life are my family and my art.  My husband Howard is a Foreign Service Officer with the US State Department, which means we move every few years, often to a new country.  I also have two daughters, and it is my job to keep them happy and healthy when we settle in a new place.  Being part of a diplomat's family has great joys, but extreme challenges as well.

During our time living in Seoul, Korea, I had the opportunity to start designing and making quilts, which had been a long-time unfulfilled interest of mine.  Seoul has a fantastic fabric market which is a warren of tiny shops selling a huge variety of fabric at extremely affordable prices.  A trip to Tongdaemun market was always fascinating, if sometimes a little nerve-wracking with food-delivery people running through the narrow aisles while we were just trying to find our way around.

While living in Moscow, Russia I continued making quilts and joined the Moscow International Quilt Guild.  In Moscow I met Liz Dickson, who made gorgeous quilts that were moving in a non-traditional direction.  Liz loved bright colors and sewing together lots of little pieces and strips to create dazzling quilts.  Her influence led me to learn more about non-traditional quilt making.  Another friend, Kolla Bunch, was also exploring new techniques and themes, and we encouraged and inspired each other.  Because of Kolla, I made my first fused applique quilt, which I heavily machine quilted and embroidered, and which was accepted into the International Quilt Show at the Hague, Netherlands.

After leaving Moscow, we moved to Vienna, Austria.  I was fortunate to meet some wonderful women there who encouraged and inspired me, in particular Gretchen Cox and Magusia Johannson.  Magusia also was my first art teacher, as I started taking weekly classes in drawing and watercolor with a group in her home.  Those classes were often the highlight of my week, as we would paint or draw, take a break for tea and a chat, and then paint or draw some more.  I learned so much, mostly by doing rather than being explicitly taught.  Magusia guided me into finding my own style and technique.  I started the class to help develop my composition and color sense for my quilting, but ended up a passionate watercolor painter as well.  Painting is such a wonderful form of meditation, because in order to paint well, you must clear your mind and focus only on painting.

In the summer of 2007 we moved again, returning to the US after 10 years overseas.  The area we live in has beautiful paths, woods and lakes, and it is wonderful to be able to participate in daily life without the challenges of a foreign language interfering.  It's nice to be back in the States, if only for a time.  It's the fate of a diplomatic family to experience the joys and challenges of a new home in a new country every few years.