Wendi Gratz

I spent over twenty years working in the children’s book industry and the experience has left its mark on me – all my favorite artists are children’s book illustrators, I believe people are basically good, and I can’t abide beige.

Now I live in the mountains of North Carolina where I spend my time designing sewing, quilting and embroidery patterns especially for beginners. I’m on a mission to teach people that anyone can sew! Or quilt! Or embroider!

All my patterns are designed especially for beginners and I never release a pattern until I have videos teaching every single skill needed for the project. It’s the whole foundation of what I do and it’s all because of my experience as a learner and as a teacher. I’m a self-taught sewist, and I learned before there was an internet. I still have such vivid memories of struggling with the instructions in patterns and sewing books! They assumed so much knowledge that I didn’t have (I didn’t even take home ec in high school so I had NO base knowledge) and the spare illustrations felt so cryptic to me. I was a student with a weird schedule and no car, so taking in-person classes was out of the question. And then I discovered the show Simply Quilts and it was like the whole world opened up. Alex Anderson was in my living room showing me how to quilt and it was all so clear! I want to provide that experience for my readers.