When I was a little girl, I would sit by my mother’s side while she was at the sewing machine. I was always so intrigued by watching her make gorgeous things out of all that beautiful fabric. My first memories of this started at about age three. She used to give me fabric scraps to create things, mostly doll clothes, and I would spend hours trying to create what I thought were masterpieces. My mother made all my clothes up through high school, as did most of my friends’ mothers in that era. My first real sewing experience occurred when I was a 4H member at around 11 years old. We had to make those elasticized-waist gingham skirts. Yuck—that was enough for me. I was not exposed to sewing again until my senior year in high school where I was required to take home economics and chose sewing over cooking. This was at a different level than 4H and actually was a little more interesting. My next exposure to sewing was when I was 24 years old. That did it for me—I was hooked. It became very addictive, and I have done some sort of sewing/machine embroidery since that time. It was and is my passion.
My love has become exclusively machine embroidery. This wasn’t just something that I had been interested in recently. I actually researched it 20 years ago. This was before the home embroidery machines hit the market. I had checked into industrial-type machines and had seriously considered doing that then. However, the machines were terribly expensive and training was very limited and far away. Little did I know that it would present itself again in the future. So, you see, this dream of mine is not a fleeting one—it is one that is very, very real to me and I am moving forward with it. I believe that one’s love and passion for something motivates the soul. You can describe my passion as fashion design/embroidery/home dec.
I have two embroidery machines, a Brother Quattro and the Brother Entrepreneur 10-needle machine. I have several different software programs that I use, and I have a wonderful monogram program with over 200 beautiful fonts. It is such fun to create.
More about me......
I grew up in a very small town in southeastern Illinois, Oblong, Illinois (yes, that’s the name). Life was good!!! Kids in this town were raised with great Midwestern values, which were instilled in me at a very young age and have carried me through some very interesting and challenging times in my life. I am so thankful to have those values. I attended elementary and high school in Oblong. I left home at the age of 17 just right after high school graduation and started summer school at Eastern Illinois University. I knew I wanted to do something in the medical field, so the counselor recommended that I claim pre-med as my major, which was a catch all for anything you wanted to do in the medical field. I attended EIU for 2-1/2 years and then transferred to Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana and changed my major to nursing. I went to school year round and ended up transferring to Indiana University Medical Center located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Having over a year's wait to transfer into the nursing program, I changed my major once again to Medical Record Administration (now called Health Information Administration), for which I hold a bachelor of science degree, and I am an RHIA (Registered Health Information Administrator). I have worked at home for the past 10 years and I wouldn’t trade that for the world. Healthcare has drastically changed over the years and the enjoyment is gone for me. Being in management most of my years, my latest venture has been voice recognition and medical editing. One really has to know medical terminology backward and forward to do this. It is fun but not something that I want long term.
Last fall, my dream started to unfold. Creative Elegance by Ann was established. I had brunch one Sunday with a couple of friends, and they were very instrumental in helping select my company's name. I have learned so much from this endeavor and have a lot more to learn. It has been and still remains a challenge, but I am finally here. Creative Elegance by Ann specializes in Wine, All Holiday, Baby & Tuscan Cucina-Inspired Embroidery Designs.
I would like to dedicate this site to my late mother who left this world in March 2004. I am eternally grateful to her for everything she taught me and the excitement that she created in my life in the sewing field and life in general.
