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 sewing, embroidery, and craft patterns. 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, stitched, 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 was published by Potter Craft in the fall of 2008.

I am now at work on my second book, EMBROIDERY COMPANION: Classic Designs for Modern Living, a collection of thirty embroidery, cross-stitch, and crewelwork patterns and projects inspired by folk art and traditional motifs. I again designed the projects, wrote the patterns, took the photos, drew the illustrations and templates, and stitched all of the projects myself. (Phew. I'm tired.) The new book will be published (by Potter) in the summer of 2010. I can't wait.

These days, when I'm not making books, I work from my home studio designing crafts and self-published patterns 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. This year I look forward to growing vegetables for the first time, exploring Portland's incredible natural areas, and hoping the Avett Brothers come back to town.