Patti Carey
Hello, my name is Patti Carey and I have been a pattern designer with QuiltWoman.com since 2009. Since that time, I have designed roughly 100 patterns. I also design quilting projects for various quilt magazines, including McCall’s Quilting, Quiltmaker, Love of Quilting and Easy Quilts. For the past 30 years, I have been with Northcott, a leading company that designs and prints quality fabrics for the quilting industry, and I am currently Vice President – Public Relations. I don’t spend much time in the office these days. Instead, you are likely to see me inspiring and educating quilters through speaking and teaching engagements at guilds, shops and conferences, or in the Northcott booth at large quilting shows such as AQS Quiltweek, QuiltCon or Quilt Festival.
 
 
Gaining a Love of Quilting
I haven’t always been a quilter. I have always sewn, however – my mom regularly sewed, making clothes for our family, and home dec projects for our house (curtains and even re-upholstering our furniture), and taught me to sew when I was 7. I did just about every craft imaginable when I was younger. All of that changed when Northcott transitioned from fashion fabrics to quilting fabrics in the early 1990’s. I taught myself to quilt so that I could make samples (a.k.a. quilts) for Northcott’s salespeople. As the need for samples grew, so did my interest in quilting. Soon I was designing quilt patterns to showcase the new fabric collections.
Designing Patterns and New Techniques
I particularly enjoy working with fabrics that many quilters shy away from – panels, border stripes, large scenic prints, or unusual fabrics – and I realized that if I could inspire quilters to use these fabrics, Northcott would continue to design and print them. 
As a result, my focus has been to create designs that show the interesting or unusual fabrics in new and innovative ways.  Many of my designs feature quilts made with panels that have been cut apart – PC-201 Psychedelic Spin is a good example, made with Northcott’s ColorWorks Concepts Psychedelic panel.  The quilt is much easier than it appears!
Additionally, I endeavor to come up with faster, better or easier ways to make quilts, and I incorporate these techniques in my patterns. For example, I found that it was much easier to cut the fabric pieces for my PC-195 Pine Grove pattern from 2½†strips if I taped the templates to the underside of a square ruler.
I also share my experiences through my blog www.pattispatchwork.com, particularly the parts of my life that include quilting, and enjoy the feedback from my readers. Quilting is not only my vocation; it is my passion.
-Patti
