My Personal Passions
Home Decor-- with rich fabrics and lavish trims! I always look forward to the holiday season each year! I bring out my treasury of original one-of-a-kind Christmas stockings, made for family members and sometimes personal friends. Late winter evenings are perfect for playing --in my charming red and white toile sewing room--spreading out my fabrics and trims and creating something fun and beautiful for the special people in my life. I love to incorporate beads, tassels, fringe, braid, cording, fur, jingle bells, jewelry, and unique Christmas pins onto designer home dec fabrics. Using my Bernina sewing machine with it's embroidery module, I can personalize each stocking. (www.strawberry-patches.com).
My collection of fabrics and trims comes from favorite shops far and near--Rutherford's Design and Leggett Fabrics in Dallas, Texas, and my favorite Los Angeles shops: F&S Fabrics, Michael Levine, Upstairs at Diamond. I also love going to the LA design centers for special projects. My inspirations come from local girlfriends (Suzanne, Patti, Rosalie, Elaine), as well as Horchow, Suite Dreams, and MacKenzie-Childs, to name a few. I also like nothing better than to go on Designer Home Tours and scout out new window treatment and decorating ideas!
My love of fabrics started in the fourth grade, when I learned to sew on my grandmother's Singer treddle sewing machine. A few years later, I lived near a Cornet Dime Store in Shafter, and I could buy fabric and trims and make new outfits every month with stashed away lunch money! I perfected my wardrobe sewing--after years of making my own lined jackets and tailored skirts and pantsuits-- enough to make several sets of bridesmaids dresses for my girlfriends. Then I just became burned out on sewing until my daughter Jenn was born in 1983: after building a new home, I bought a new sewing machine and created window treatments, rooms full of bedding with pillow shams, dust ruffles, quilttops with applique, curtains, draperies, etc. In this process, I developed a new friendship with Suzanne, a lovely, very talented lady that has become a dear friend: Suzanne owned a fabulous quilt shop--Yarn Barn, in downtown Bakersfield near the local newspaper where I worked, that later grew into our local, hugely successful and always treasure-filled, Strawberry Patches. Suzanne continues to inspire me with her wonderful blog and website.
