Read my story
I am a quilter for over 30 years.
In the late 80’s my husband and I moved to the Middle East (Oman) for his job, here I found my new hobby in Patchwork. Finding the right fabrics to use for traditional patchwork was hard so I contacted a shop in the US. From them I started ordering 1/4 yards for my own projects. As soon as others found out about my nice fabrics, they asked me to order for them too. Where it started off with ordering 1/4 yards of 1 fabric, I ended up ordering full bolts of fabrics for the quilting community in Oman. I started to teach patchwork and had my own little shop called ‘Patchwork Studio’ from home with fabrics and supplies. Our daughter was born in Oman and then we moved on to Aberdeen, Scotland.
In Scotland I thought there would be enough shops with patchwork fabrics & supplies, but not where we lived! My neighbour friends asked me if I could teach them how to quilt and I started a new small business called ‘Patch ‘n Pride’. It started off in the smallest room of our house but ended up in a large room of a new house with it’s own entrance and parking. I attended a lot of arts & craft shows in Scotland and started a mailorder business as well. Our son was born in Aberdeen, and then we moved as a family to Egypt.
In Egypt I did some quilting but living there took a lot of my energy. I found out about the beautiful art made by the tentmakers of Egypt. I tried to sell their art in the Netherlands but ended up with suitcases full of handmade cushion covers and wall hangings that were difficult to sell.
In 2000 we moved back to the Netherlands. I started a fabric shop in our village called ‘Stoffen Jans’. The building next door was empty and I was asked if I wanted to hire that as shop. I decided to start a children’s wear shop. This shop grew bigger and bigger with an online shop as well as a second branch in another village.
I sold my fabric shop and continued my children’s wear business for several years. It was hard work with many employees who all wanted something different.
And then came the moment that I decided to terminate my shops and pick up my hobby again…
We went on holiday to the US and I bought many quilting magazines. Back home I started browsing the web for the online stores I found in the magazines. I also tried to find a nice quilting website in the Netherlands but I couldn’t find any that fitted my needs. As I still had my website from my children’s wear store, I decided to rebuild that webshop into a webshop with quilting fabrics and supplies. My Quiltshop-online was born.
I had this idea not to grow too big and keep it all in my house. I managed to do that for a few years and then I had stuff all piled up everywhere in the house.
I needed to down size or to find a bigger space for all my merchandise. I decided to go for that bigger space and moved out of my home to an old post office in our village. I had opening hours for clients to visit and a workshop space to organise workshops. I bought a longarm quilting machine and hired someone to run my quiltservice. Soon this space was too small and we bought an old supermarket building with more than enough space to have my business. Almost five years I had the most wonderful time with my still growing business. Unfortunately due to physical health problems I had to make the hardest decision in my life to terminate my business.
But when one door closes, another opens.
We bought a house in Spain, where we now spend much of our time. The sun, the warmth and the colors around me gave me new creative energy. I stayed in touch with the fabric industry and began designing quilt patterns again.
Making quilt patterns made me realize how much I had missed creating. One of my quilts was exhibited in Sitges, Spain, and at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in 2023.
Along the way, I became increasingly interested in surface pattern design. Combining fabric design with quilt pattern design felt like the perfect next step for me.
In May 2024, that dream became reality when I joined Hoffman California Fabrics as a licensed designer. My first fabric collection, Whimsical Flower Garden, was released in 2025, followed by more collections of colorful fabrics and coordinating quilt designs.
Today I continue to design both fabrics and quilt patterns, bringing together the two things I love most: color and quilting.