My name is Monica Van Zuiden. I have been sewing since I was a young girl, I made my own bell bottom pants and bell sleeve tops when they were popular the first time. I learned to sew from my mother who believed that sewing was important as breathing air and no daughter of hers was going out into the world without knowing how to sew.

As a young mother of two girls I loved making them matching outfits until they objected. The girls were joined by two small brothers who brought their own wardrobe project. When the girls were older buying prom dresses at retail were beyond our means. I did not want my girls to miss these big events or feel like they didn’t have the perfect dresses so I created their prom dresses. It was fantastic to be able to create custom, unique dresses.

The boys had much different wardrobe needs. They primarily wanted t-shirts and sweatshirts after supplying them with these basics I knew I had to find another sewing outlet. That was when I found quilting. As the proud mother of 4 children and the last two only 15 months apart, I used quilting to save my sanity as a stay at home mom. At that time, I was making a quilt top a week for a local quilt shop to use as samples. Soon I was teaching quilt making. I was an early adopter of machine quilted quilts because hand quilting took too long for me. If I machine quilted my quilts, I could get started on a another one much quicker. Soon I was taking orders for custom quilts and making enough money to purchase a brand new sewing machine.

Then, I found machine embroidery. I started off with a used machine that had a 5 x 7 hoop and did not cut jump stitches. With only males in my house now (husband and 2 teenage sons), they had a different view of what could be embroidered. I wanted to add embroidery to everything. They quickly drew the line at only a shirt or two and was told to not touch any other of their clothing. They did not appreciate how a beautiful embroidered rose could enhance their favorite sweatshirt or how a cute a little dump truck would be perfect above the breast pocket of their favorite shirt.

I met and quickly became associated with an in-the-hoop digitizer. Since I had extensive experience at teaching sewing and quilting classes for quilt shops, community groups, and college continuing education, I was the lead national educator. Traveling across the United States teaching in-the-hoop embroidery projects.

My sewing room is home to a Babylock Solaris sewing/embroidery machine, a Babylock Triumph serger, and a Brother PR1000E. I also have a Janome Excel in the closet along with a Singer featherweight. One might say I have more machines than I can possibly sew on but the truth is they have their purpose and I use them all. Some I use much more than the others but I love them all.

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