Meet Susan Morehouse Owner of Quilts’n’Stitches.

I grew up on a farm in New Zealand where I learned to stitch as a very young girl. One of my earliest memories is sitting in the grass "paddock" away from the house earnestly stitching on a cloth only to be thoroughly dismayed after what seemed many hours that I had stitched it all to my dress!! My first machine stitching was on a treadle sewing machine at my one room elementary school. I learned to sew on Mum's electric Singer making doll clothes. I have lived in the US for nearly 25 years after a short stint in Canada, most of the time in Fort Collins.

Quilting is a relatively new skill for me since I took my first serious class in 1999. I am fortunate to have had a mother in law with a long heritage of quilting in Missouri. I left New Zealand to attend graduate school at Colorado State University where I was enrolled in the PhD program and met my husband, a native Missourian. We have one daughter, Rebecca who was born in Fort Collins.

I worked for nearly 20 years as an environmental engineer as a state regulator, an environmental consultant and then in the corporate world. Finally in late 2002 I decided I needed a change in direction for my life and opened a store called "The Quilter’s Garden" I love everything about quilting, the fabric, the patterns, contemporary work, old quilts and traditional patterns I closed the store early in 2007 and am now continuing my favorite things with my online business Quilts'n'Stitches.

I particularly enjoy handwork and have focused my new business more on Crazy Quilting, appliqué as well as contemporary and traditional quilt kits. I still believe one can never have too much fabric or too many books – I now would add – too many threads!