Who is Cathy Perlmutter?

Hello, my name is Cathy Perlmutter. Growing up in the 1960s, my primary art form was Creepy Crawlers—plastic bugs baked on a dangerous little hot plate, in the middle of my bedroom’s lavender shag rug. (Somehow I avoided setting the house on fire.) I loved all “arts & crafts,” but I had more enthusiasm than talent — a college drawing class plummeted my grade point average! I got much better grades in writing, so I embarked on a journalism career.

A chance visit to a quilt show in 1991 astounded me. I started quilting in my free time, and gradually my writing career migrated toward quilting. Today, my quilts have won awards (that only took 30 years), my articles and tutorials have been published in magazines and my gefiltequilt.com blog, and I have authored several longer sewing books.

I want people who use my books and patterns to have as much fun as I do. Especially if you ever thought you were bad at art! Quilting is a fun and forgiving entry to the world of artmaking, and should be a joyful, healing, learning, and soul-satisfying activity. And I firmly believe you’ll experience more joy if you adopt ideas to your tastes, and play with improvisation. Most of the best things that happen in my quilts were accidents - but you can put yourself in a position to make serendipity happen, and to recognize when it happens!