Kate’s fascination with quilting began in 1991 when she received a hand-quilted Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt as a wedding present. The gift of a second scrappy quilt further solidified her love of fabrics and colors. She made her first quilt in 1993 to celebrate the birth of her first child and has been a devoted quilter ever since. As an Army veteran with over 7 years of service, a military spouse for 27 years and a mother of 5 children, quilting became the thread that stitched her into the new community every time the family moved. As a stay-at-home mom, she taught and organized charity quilting for decades through community and church organizations. She loves all styles and types of quilts from art to modern, from traditional pieced to appliqué.
By 2007 her children were older and she began teaching at local quilt shops. She loves to interact with other creative people and help them to develop the skills they need to make both beautiful and comfortable quilted items. When her husband’s military service brought her family to Albuquerque, NM in 2014, she began working and teaching at her local quilt shop. This training and experience also helped her realize her own dream of becoming a longarm quilter.
In 2016, she opened FabriKated Quilts Longarm Service in Rio Rancho, NM. After longarming for the public for several year, Kate’s love of quilting and longarming lead to a natural transition to teaching others how to get the best from their longarm machines. Teaching longarming since 2016, Kate joined Janome America as a longarm specialist in January 2022.
Her longarm specialties include ruler work skills, working with Pro-Stitcher®, and combining digital and free-motion designs. Her students also learn to achieve their best possible results by playing with all different thread types and weights, squaring up and taming wavy quilts, and breaking large quilts down into manageable bites.
Let her help you longarm your way into the future by embracing traditions of the past and blending them with modern techniques to create heirlooms for tomorrow.