Karen grew up on a farm in NE Ohio in a family of creators and learned to sew at an early age. She became accomplished in sewing clothing, embroidery, cross stitch, knitting, crocheting and quilting. After many years, she found that her passion was quilting and has been quilting for the past 35 years.

Her grandmother was an excellent seamstress and quilter who used a treadle sewing machine to create her masterpieces long before the luxuries of rotary cutters and computerized machines. Her mom quilted and believed that hand quilting was the only way to go, until Karen started quilting with a longarm machine!

During high school, Karen took a lot of art classes where she learned about design, color, and texture, which she is able to integrate into her quilting. Most of her quilts are traditional, but she occasionally steps out of that genre.

Karen has a BS in elementary education from Kent State University and a master’s degree in educational technology from Ashland University. In preparing for her retirement after 30 years of teaching, she became fascinated by longarm quilting. She bought an HQ Amara® and started learning how to use it with a passion. She loves combining Pro-Stitcher® and ruler work with free motion quilting. She has been a member of a quilting/sewing group, The Pinpricks, for the last 25 years. Becoming an HQ educator was an exciting way to combine her love of teaching, technology, and quilting! Her favorite parts of being an HQ educator are working with people, sharing her expertise, and visiting quilt shops.

Along with her amazing husband, who supports her quilting addiction, Karen lives near Columbus, Ohio. In addition to quilting, Karen loves to garden, travel and work on the family farm.