The Short Version:

I was the weird kid who reorganized the box of crayons in rainbow order so they’d look better. House of Taiga is a celebration of my life-long adoration of the colour spectrum, and the opportunity to share that with others. For love of colour and whimsy and pompoms and polkadots and tassels and party hats and everything absolutely gorgeous.

The Really Long Version:

When we moved into our Victorian row-house in Toronto, it became a revolving door of friends and family. My husband dubbed it Paravel, after the castle in Narnia where all the siblings lived together. It felt right: a little bit magical, full of whimsical things, and open to all. When I created my first quilt I stitched ‘Paravel’ onto the label, because that’s where it was made. Suddenly one quilt became three became thirty, and Paravel: House of Taiga was born.

In 2020 I’m home on leave with my first baby and I have no idea what I’m doing. The new parent curse: in love, exhausted, and deathly bored all at once. I needed something that was just mine, that would allow me to use my brain for an hour a day. So I made a quilt. What was initially just to maintain a bit of sanity became this island of activity in our home. For months, everything we did revolved around this small rainbow quilt on the floor. And immediately we saw huge leaps in her development as she started to see colours, and then recognize shapes, and have favourite fabrics she would return to again and again. It was our entertainment space, a place of discovery and learning. All tummy time was on the quilt, strengthening her neck and back as she gazed at the colours and patterns. It’s where she rolled over for the first time, sat up for the first time, crawled for the first time, and as she grew it became this amazing tool for learning names of things, ‘Where’s the cat? Where’s the bird? Can you point to flowers?’

My focus is on using fabrics that are compelling for children and beautiful for adults. I want the quits I make to be tools, be toys, but also be a welcome part of the environment no matter where they’re dropped or tossed.

All kids love I Spy! And adults do too! As it turns out, the Queen and King sized quilts and adult quilt coats are what I spend the most time making! After all, quilt coats are just blankets you can take with you out in public.

In the last few years I’ve made custom quilts and quilt coats for people in France, Norway, Canada, Australia, and the United States. I’ve made quilts for dorm rooms and cottages. I’ve made quilts for a first birthday and for an 80th birthday. And I never, ever tire of it.