We spent a little over 2 years living onboard and traveling on the Hatteras. Our travels took us from Florida, up to the Great Lakes, the Georgian Bay in Canada, to the locks at Sault Ste Marie, MI.   Then we drove the boat back down to Ft Lauderdale, FL and sold her.   Then moved back to Colorado and bought our house in Woodland Park.

Start of my quilting passion:

I started quilting in 2000, after I took a beginners’ quilting class and loved it.  Since then, I’ve been hooked.  My fabric stash has grown to the size of a small quilt shop.  The quilt book library is over 300.  And, many patterns have piled up. 

While living aboard the Hatteras in 2002-2003, I started designing the Chesapeake Bay lighthouse patterns.  As you can see, the lighthouses are my specialty. The lighthouses are special to me because of my many years of boating which started in 1976.  The lighthouses are an important part of navigation.  They all have a particular meaning to boaters.  The different color lights mean different things to the captain driving the boat.

In 2004, after moving to Woodland Park, I started my quilting business, which at first, was longarm quilting, then it progressed into some custom made quilts and publishing my patterns.  Now, my business is mostly designing and publishing patterns. I will do an occasional custom quilt by request. I also invite quilters to let me know their favorite lighthouse so I can design a pattern of it.

I’m so thankful to God that I’ve been blessed with the opportunities to live on and travel on several different boats (sail and power) that I’ve been able to own with my husband at different times.  I still miss being on the ocean and Great Lakes, but I also love living in the high mountains of Colorado (8,800 feet elevation).  It’s beautiful here and I’m fortunate to have a nice large quilting studio.  And, when I go away on vacation, it’s to the water.

I’m also thankful that God gave me the talent to create art out of fabric, because, as you know, being a quilter, we love our fabric. 

I'm a member of a small quilting group in Teller County, a member of American Quilter’s Society, SAQA, and IMQA.

Thank you for visiting my website. I hope other quilters will enjoy my patterns. They can be purchased here on my website.  I also invite quilt shop owners to have a look, as they can buy wholesale from my site.

Please feel free to e-mail me any questions you may have regarding my patterns, long-arm quilting services, machine quilting, or quilting in general.

Karen

Karen, the owner of Machine Quilting Services, was born and grew up in northeast Ohio in the small rural town, Chesterland.  My mom got me interested in sewing at a very young age.  Starting in Blue Birds making bean bags, then Camp Fire Girls,  4-H sewing club, home-ec in junior high.  These took me from simple sewing projects on to more complex clothing items.  In a few years I was making most all my own clothes including tailored suits for work.  Most of my office career was at Fabri-Centers of America, Inc. (home office for Jo-Ann Fabrics).  This was located in an eastern suburb of Cleveland.  I started as a secretary in the accounting department, and then moved up to office administrator in various departments.   

In 1984 my husband and I left our jobs, sold our house and moved onto our 35’ Alberg sailboat.  After moving onto our first liveaboard boat, I stopped making clothes.  The boating passion took over.

We traveled for one year onboard our boat, from the Great Lakes to the Florida Keys, then back to Annapolis, MD.  Settled in Annapolis for 5 years, living aboard the Alberg 35.  In 1989 we bought a Pearson 42’ sailboat and continued living aboard.  I bought 2 computers; a Mac and a Compaq portable computer and started a bookkeeping and office services business which included desktop publishing, word processing, and contract office management services.  I also started an importing and sales business with foul weather gear and sails from England. While living in Annapolis in 1988, I got my US Coast Guard License.  I have a current U.S. Coast Guard 100 ton License to be a U.S. Merchant Marine Officer.

In 1990, we moved to Florida and sold our boat a year later and moved landside.  At that time, I was working in the yacht industry as office manager and bookkeeper for Massey Yacht Sales in Palmetto, FL.

In early 1993 my husband and I went sailing again.  We sailed on our Beneteau 43’ from Florida, thru the Caribbean to Grenada.  The next year, we sailed that boat back to Florida, sold it, and bought a Morgan 60’ sailboat.  That year we sailed thru the Bahamas and on to Bermuda, then New England up to Maine, then down to Annapolis, MD.

Then I spent 2 years in Annapolis managing a yacht brokerage business for Massey Yacht Sales while my husband sailed the Morgan across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and back to Florida.   We sold the boat after that and moved to Colorado, where my husband is from.  Two years later, we got the itch to go cruising again, only this time on a motoryacht.  So, we sold our Colorado house and bought the Hatteras 61’ cockpit motoryacht.