My name is Kathy Kessler and I live in Bloomington, Indiana.  I'm married to a wonderful man, Gene, and we have three grown children and seven grandchildren.

I began quilting in May 2004.  I always knew that I wanted to try it, but just never found the time to do it.  Then a coworker was in town and asked me if we could go to a quilt fabric shop.  This was my first time in this shop.  I was just amazed at the vibrant colors and patterns on the fabric.

For the next two weeks I could not get the fabric out of my mind.  I decided to try my hand at quilting, so I went back to the shop and bought my first pattern and fabric.  I couldn't wait to get started.  I had so much fun making it, that I had to make another one.  Although the pattern was the same, the fabric was considerably different.  It ended up being my favorite quilt.  I had Jane Pitt do the quilting on my first two quilts.  She did such a beautiful job that I thought that I'd like to try it.

In June 2004 my husband surprised me with a Little Gracie quilting rack and Juki long-arm machine for my birthday.  While the Juki is a personal long-arm machine with a nine-inch throat, it was good enough for me to get a taste of quilting.  In my first year of quilting, I made 17 quilts, 15 of them I quilted myself using my Juki and Little Gracie quilt rack.

I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go into the quilting business to help others complete their quilting projects.  My husband and I went to the MQS long-arm convention in Kansas City in May 2005.  I purchased an APQS Millennium Long-Arm Quilting Machine with a 12-foot table and Hartley accessories.  Since then I've taken classes from several nationally known long-arm quilters to improve my skill.

In July 2008, a friend of mine persuaded me to enter one of my quilts (Eureka) in the Monroe County Fair.  To my surprise, it won Grand Champion.

After several years of quilting for customers, I have decided to retire from long-arm quilting.  I will continue doing my own long-arm quilting and look forward to being able to spend more time on my own quilting projects.  I hope that you've enjoyed viewing my quilting gallery. 

Happy quilting!