Joanne - Sales/Teacher/Long Arm Specialist

I started sewing when I was five years old. I wasn't allowed to use the sewing machine so I had to hand sew my Barbie clothes. My first job was in a large fabric store with the same name as me. I sewed garments for years and made my first quilt after my daughter was born. Twenty years later I'm still making quilt tops. I love the challenge of a new pattern or technique but get bored with the quilt once I know what it will look like finished. I have so many quilt tops. I am called the Queen of Acrylic because of my love of any new ruler or template. I love to teach quilting classes and work hard doing all your cutting and pressing in class so you will really miss me when you go home.

Susan Scott- Sales/AccuQuilt

 I am originally from Cary, NC and have lived all over NC, some in SC, VA, and MD.  I grew up with various handmade pieces of clothing from my mom as a kid, so I’m sure she has a lot to do with my creative mind. My mom signed me up for a sewing class one summer at G Street Fabrics in MD when I was eleven.  I wasn’t the happiest about it, but after was so excited that I signed up for every class after that from pattern making to various apparel making classes. I was hooked and got my first Bernina 1001 not long after that. Sewing has continued to be in my life through working and growing up in a bridal and formal wear shop, taking high school fashion design classes, sewing costumes for family and friends, and most recently quilting with my mom and sewing various items for charity through a sewing ministry at church.  One thing not everyone knows about me is that I was a professional photographer for many years taking pictures at weddings, special events and even running multiples portrait studios.  

 My husband Luke and I have two fur babies named Blue and Beulah. 

 
Mary Ann - Sales

I started sewing in middle school through home economics classes. I dabbled with sewing through adulthood but raising a family was my top priority. It didn’t leave much room to sew. When my youngest daughter went off to college I decided I needed a hobby and found how to make a quilt on the internet. I made my first quilt this way and my youngest still uses it. Halfway through making that first quilt I decided I need a better sewing machine. My oldest daughter worked with someone that had a Bernina. My daughter and I found Sew Much Fun and I bought my first Bernina that day. That was 12 years ago and one of the best investments I ever made. I have learned so much not only quilting but have added embroidery to my sewing skills. I am very excited about working at Sew Much Fun. There is so much to learn and many new friends to make. I have 3 daughters, 1 granddaughter and a very support husband that lets me live my dream every day.

 

Carolyn - Sales
I was born into a large Minnesota family of sewists.  My first quilting experience has been told to me hundreds of times - singing commercial jingles under Grandma's frame at age 3 as she and my great aunts stitched.  The love of fibers is in my DNA!

I started out using Mom's leftover fabrics, embroidery floss, and a needle or two by the time I was 6.  My Barbie dolls even had handmade shoes!  I spent many wonderful hours on crochet, felt applique, and crewel work.  I was in middle school before I began using a machine on a regular basis.  Mom taught me the basics as she created her own pieces.

As a young family, my husband and I relocated to the south.  For many years, there was little time to sew "for fun".  Making my nursing uniforms and a few dresses for our daughters filled my sewing hours.  I began making very simple quilts about 10 years ago.

Fast forward to the present.  I have more time to sew the things that make me smile.  I love, love, love sewing on my machine - a BERNINA 790Plus.  Quilts and bags are my favorites, with loads of color.  Each day is a new day to explore what can be done with fabric, thread, and imagination.  I still have many goals to reach when it comes to sewing, including sharing the joy of creating with our granddaughter!  I am sew happy to be able to share the joy of creating at Sew Much Fun!

 Cindy - Sales

My mom and dad loved antiques and took our family to flea markets and shops regularly. I was always drawn to the quilts. I started stitching small quilts for my baby dolls. After taking home economics and becoming the proud owner of a Singer featherweight, I began to learn patchwork and hand quilting. My mom and I made a red, white, and blue quilt for the bicentennial, which I still have. When I moved to Connecticut as a newlywed, I joined a small quilt group, and began attending the Vermont Quilt Festival, where I purchased my first Bernina. I have continued to quilt through the years as Randy and I raised our children in the New England area, and later in Charleston. I have been a teacher, and later a principal. We retired to Mt. Holly, and I joined Sew Much Fun after taking classes here.

 Mary Beth Halstead - Sales

I am the youngest of 4 children and the only girl, so my grandmother was my first sewing teacher on her White sewing machine. I joined 4H and made a “broomstick skirt” and won a blue ribbon at the county fair! She enkindled in me the love of sewing and I inherited her machine when she passed away.

My dad bought me my first Singer machine and I made many of my clothes for school in high school, and I made many clothes for my daughter when she was small. Fast forward to the working life as a nurse, a husband with health problems who passed away after 17 years of illness, and a move to North Carolina from Florida after I retired to be near my daughter and her family.

I had never made a quilt but took my first class in Gastonia and was hooked. I had left my fancy Singer machine to one of my friends when I left Florida and bought a cheap one when I got here. My first quilt was a simple one, made on the Singer, but then I purchased a more expensive machine as I thought it would be a great investment as I continued quilting.

Then I discovered Sew Much Fun! I traded my expensive machine in on a more expensive one, but one that made my quilting so much more fun and my piecing more precise and beautiful. Being a perfectionist, that was what I aspired to, I continue to work as a nurse but now I also work at Sew Much Fun. It has been wonderful to see all the beautiful options that I couldn’t have seen by just roaming around in the store. And I’m learning even more about my Bernina sewing machine and all that I can do with it.