Bio
Born in Portland, OR
Lives & works in Lehi, UT
I began making quilts in 2003 using my grandmother's sheets. I still enjoy creating group quilts with friends, but my main focus now is making dynamic quilts that express my experiences and spirituality. After seven years co-founding and co-directing Utah County Modern Quilt Group, I switched focus to academia. My areas of interest are 21st century quiltmaking through the lenses of women's studies, fan studies, and anthropology. Other areas within those fields are the Modern Quilt Movement, communitas, pilgrimage, digital community, and the diffusion of innovation theory. I am currently looking at Generation X American quiltmakers as entrepreneurs, fabric changes post-2000, and the rotary cutter as a symbol of the second American quilt revival.
The mother of three teenagers, I have been happily married for over twenty years.
I am a cancer survivor and a birder. I enjoy cycling, traveling, BBC murder mysteries, and the mountains.
Curricula Vitae
Education
2025 University of Leicester, anticipated PhD in Museum Studies
2021 University of Nebraska-Lincoln, MA in Material Culture & Textile Studies
2000 Brigham Young University, BA in English
Accomplishments
2023-2024 Names of Christ (2020) accepted at Springville Museum of Art's
37th Annual Spritual And Religious Art of Utah Exhibit
2023 September Expert Panel Presenter for BYU Museum of Art's Primal Forces:Earth Exhibit
2022-2024 American Quilt Study Group Board Member & Treasurer
2022 Visitor Experience Intern, Springville Museum of Art
2022 Names of Christ (2020) accepted at The 12th International Art Competition
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
2022 Names of Christ (2020) included in Brigham Young University
Maxwell Institute's Book of Mormon Art Catalog
2021 Undaunted (2020) acquired by The Henry Ford Museum
2021 Paper Presenter at American Quilt Study Group's Annual Seminar
2020 Research practicum for The Henry Ford Museum
2020 Recipient of the Frances J. Cronin Fellowship, UNL & International Quilt Museum
2019 Poster presenter at American Quilt Study Group Seminar
2019 Judge for Springville Museum of Art's Annual Quilt Exhibit
Publications
2025 Forthcoming, The Personal is Pop Cultural: American Generation X Women Entrepreneurs as Innovators and Cultural Producers in the 21st Century Quilt World, Doctorate Dissertation, University of Leicester.
2024 Podcast Interview with Janneken Smucker for Quilt Alliance's Running Stitch, Season 4
2024, Ways of Seeing the Rotary Cutter: An Interdisciplinary
Examination of Technology’s Impact on Quiltmaking Praxis, Uncoverings, Vol 45.
2024, It's Not Just A Sharp Blade. Quilting Arts Magazine, Spring Issue 121, pp. 77-79.
2024, It's Not Just A Sharp Blade. QuiltCon Magazine, pp. 60-62.
2023, I'm a Big Fan . . . and Likely You Are, Too: Fandom at QuiltCon. QuiltCon Magazine, pp. 46-49.
2022, A Constructive Place to Disagree? Today's Modern Quilt Movement. Curated Quilts Magazine, Issue 21, pp. 26-33.
2022, The Landscape of the Modern Quilt Movement: 1995-2020. Uncoverings, Vol. 43.
2022, These Are My People and Yours. QuiltCon Magazine, pp. 16-19.
2021, These Are My People: An Ethnography of QuiltCon, Master's Thesis, UNL Digital Commons.
2020 Sept 21, Growing The Henry Ford's Quilt Collection: The Modern Quilt Movement. The Henry Ford Museum Blog Post.
