How it all began...

I had a neighbor named Dianne who I babysat for in Narrabri, NSW, Australia when I was a teenager and she was a quilter. I always loved the idea of quilting and thought to myself "one day I'll try it when I have more time & money".

Then in March of 2012 I had a massive pulmonary embolism as a result of deep vein thrombosis caused by a series of air flights from Perth Western Australia to Denver Colorado and back and I nearly died after I passed out at home alone with an enlarged heart, severe radiating chest pain and a massive accumulation of clots in both my lungs. Fortunately my dogs were there to wake me up and I was able to call an ambulance.

In hospital recovering
I spent a night in the intensive care unit whilst undergoing potentially deadly Alterplase blood thinning therapy to save my life, then 4 more days in hospital and I also had two weeks of nurse home visits once I was released from hospital. A year of Warfarin blood thinners was also necessary to prevent a relapse. I now take blood thinning injections every time I fly.

Self injecting blood thinners the first time!
That is when I decided that I couldn't put off until tomorrow things that I always wanted to try. So after many weeks of a long initial recovery phase, I bought a cheap brother sewing machine to give quilting a try.