Even as a little a girl I loved to make things. I grew
up just outside Chicago, in a tiny house with a very
creative family. Someone was always making something
there. My dad was a musician and a commercial artist,
and my mom taught my sisters and me everything from
cake decorating to sewing, macrame to embroidery. I
had my first “business” at age 13, when
I sold handmade model-horse blankets through a classified
ad in a magazine.
I went to college to study English, then graduate school
to study creative writing, but I never stopped trying
to find time to make crafts. In 1998, shortly after
I married Andy Paulson (my college sweetheart) and we
moved to Portland, Oregon, I was in a bad accident that
required me to spend many months in bed recovering.
I began embroidering almost constantly then and it profoundly
affected me, allowing me to heal both physically and
emotionally. It was almost a year before I walked again.
Our life changed dramatically after my accident. In
2000, I left my job as a book editor and started Posie:
Rosy Little Things, a one-woman production studio
where I created handmade one-of-a-kind gifts, handbags,
accessories, crochetwear, and original art. Andy went
to nursing school and became an RN in 2003. From 2003
until 2006, I co-owned Ella Posie, a boutique in
Portland that featured dozens of unique, handmade, vintage-inspired
product lines in addition to my own. For most of 2007,
I designed, wrote patterns for, and photographed thirty
original sewing projects for my first book,
STITCHED IN TIME: Memory-Keeping Projects to Sew
and Share from the Creator of Posie Gets Cozy,
which will be published by Potter
Craft in the fall of 2008.
These days, I work from my home studio, designing crafts
and selling my handmade originals exclusively through
my web shop. I love to take photos and write about stuff
at my blog, Posie
Gets Cozy. In 2008 I look forward to developing
more patterns, finishing my granny-square blanket, taking
a real cooking class (never have), and reading memoirs
of Americans in France.
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