ITH Mitten Banner with Letters Embroidery Project

Hi! I am Bonnie, I was born in West Virginia, but raised in Cleveland Ohio. Graphics digitizer, commercial embroiderer & business owner. After living from Maine to Alaska in the Navy, we have settled in the country, so I have space for my three rescued alpacas. I began sewing at the age of 7, never learned to use a pattern so nearly failed home economics in junior high! For over 22 years I designed and created porcelain dolls and their costumes, ranging from antique reproductions to modern style dolls. I also sculpted several of my own dolls and taught classes. I have been married almost 26 years now! We have two sons. Both boys, Daniel 23 and Jason 21, were home schooled and are currently attending college. My husband and I are active in our church and mission programs as he currently chairs a partnership of churches working in West Africa. We have also trained and led young adult mission teams working in Peru the past seven years. My family is an active supporter of the local Boy Scout troops, having raised two Eagle scouts. I occasionally travel out of the country with my husband while he goes to meet with other governments. While he works I get to see all the sites and museums :0) We have been to Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Africa. I am looking forward to Sweden this spring. My digitizing “career” actually began 7 years ago when I purchased a home embroidery machine and software package. I self learned the software as I found out after they had no one that really new anything about the software they were selling so I became proficient in a very short time and the local store asked me to teach classes. This went on for a few years while I expanded my knowledge of the industry and determined it was time to obtain a commercial machine and software package and in doing so I started my embroidery business. I do custom embroidery for local businesses and home embroiderer’s and digitize for Designsbysick.com. I enjoy working with Shawn and Linda as I am able to be more creative with my digitizing and expand on my ideas. My husband supported this “business” change, as I sold my doll business and “focused” on embroidery, but he does think sometimes that he has lost me to the computer!