Joan made her first quilt at the age of ten. It was a crazy quilt made from her mother's fabric scraps, and was a complete mess. She sewed the quilt top sitting on the floor of her bedroom with her older sister's cast-off Singer sewing machine (Joan would not recommend sewing this way). It wasn't the prettiest of quilts, but her cat Patrick loved it.   

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Joan got an education, worked, met her husband, had kids, worked some more and the only thing she sewed were costumes every Halloween.

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In 2012, Joan's beautiful and talented mom, Pat, moved in with them. Due to her mom's declining health, Joan left her job to stay home and care for her. To give Joan a caregiver’s break, she took a quilting class held at a nearby library. The class taught how to make a basic log cabin quilt. The instructor moved on to a sampler quilt and then showed them how to create a t-shirt quilt. Joan's mom enjoyed collaborating with Joan on quilt layouts and color selections.  Joan sold her first quilt during that time. It was a Tangled Knot Log Cabin quilt that was to be a wedding present for a young couple. Sadly, Joan's mom passed away in 2016, and Joan returned to an office job, fitting in quilting when she could.

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With her kids getting older, Joan decided to join her local quilt guild, Pennsylvania Quilters, to meet some new people and learn more about quilting. Through the guild, she took a Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP) class and fell in love with the process. After finishing the Mariner's Medallion Quilt by Betty Neff from Pennsylvania Quilter, Joan found it difficult to locate her next project. Patterns were not clearly labeled as being FPP, quilt shops carried only a couple of patterns, if any at all, and locating designers on-line was time consuming.

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In 2019, Joan and her husband attended the Lancaster Quilt Show. After attending that event, and once again finding only a handful of patterns, she had an idea. Joan had always dreamed of owning a shop, why not one that specialized in FPP. As a young girl, Joan pretended she was a shop owner while her best friend, Denise, bought items. Joan set up displays, keyed the prices into a pretend register, accepted payments, and bagged her friend’s purchases. It was time to turn that dream into reality, virtually.  

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Joan is currently serving as Vice-President of Organization for the Pennsylvania Quilters guild and is a member of  the Northeast PA Quilts of Valor group.