Since the ubiquitous textile design experience of weaving pot holders on a square metal loom using stretchy cotton loops, Ellen has been hooked on the broad medium of textiles. Working on or with fabrics has always had a gravitational pull on her life. Girl Scouts in her small, southern hometown provided useful skills, such as righting a flipped canoe, pitching a tent, making s'mores (of course), and especially needlework. Ellen has studied and designed professionally in many branches of needlework, from needlepoint to applique to embroidery and quilting. She has a textile radar that just about affects her heart rate when she sees a wonderful piece of art or craft created with fabric. Whether going to London and studying exquisite crewelwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum or sitting in church behind Virginia Avery and studying her joyous wearable art, Ellen is inspired and happy to see art and skill combined in a medium that speaks her language. Ellen created the idea of floorquilts to solve a problem. The question was how her love of well-designed textiles on the floor could coexist with her love of dogs in various stages of development (chewing rug corners being one of the stages). Floorquilts became the solution. When she's not giving lessons at the Quilt Cottage in Mamaroneck, Ellen lives in Rye, New York, with her husband, Mitch, and their two dogs, Broadway and Charlie. Ellen and her family, human and otherwise, hope that making and living with floorquilts will give you and your family many reasons to smile.
