January Spotlight 2016

Let’s get to know April Rosenthal!

My mom says I was 21 when I was born, and that we had a coin toss in heaven to see which of us got to be the mom. Obviously, I lost. I remember as a child being told to smile a lot, and was always confused when people said that. It's not that I was grouchy or ornery, just that I was always lost in my own thoughts, and was never outgoing and loud. My nose always in a book, always keeping to myself. I guess that came across as unhappy to some people, though I feel personally like I was a very calm, contented child. I'm extremely introverted.

I remember being excited when I turned 8, because my mom finally let me sew on her precious Bernina. Before that, it was all needle and thread. I made barbie clothes, mostly, though occasionally I ventured into more adventurous pursuits...like the time I tried to make my mom a sewing organizer from a picture in a magazine. I made my first quilt in high school, and hated it. At the time, my parents were in the process of divorcing, and we couldn't afford fabric. I was able to get the necessary yardage from our church welfare office, which I was embarrassed by--and to make matters worse it was all juvenile baby prints. I made the quilt top, got the grade, and shoved the top away for the next decade.

I love learning, and always challenged myself in school--when I graduated high school I had enough AP credits to start as nearly a Junior in college. I majored in Linguistics with a minor in teaching english as a second language. I married my husband Jacob when I was 21 (we met in junior high and dated in high school). He is truly amazing and loves me better than anyone else could. This spring, we will have known each other for 21 years. We've been married for 13.

We struggled with infertility for 6 years, and finally had our twins, Lily and Beckham via in vitro. While working through our fertility issues, I began quilting again in earnest. I decided to make a quilt for each friend or family member that got pregnant while I was struggling. This gave me the opportunity to work through my mixed feelings on my own time, so that I could be happy and excited for their life and new baby instead of trying to keep it together at their baby showers, etc.

I started my pattern company, Prairie Grass Patterns in 2009 when my twins were almost 2 years old. I never had any intention of being a pattern designer, but I wanted to work from home in design, and learned that fabric design was a thing. After researching a lot, I knew that my best bet for getting into the company I wanted to work with was to have strong patterns first. So, I made a 5 year plan for pattern design, culminating in pitching art to Moda. I'm thrilled every day that they said yes.

This past year, we welcomed our sweet little one, Hazel, into our family. She is truly our sunshine! I was nervous about "starting over" with my twins being 7 years old, but honestly it has been fantastic. This coming year, I am looking forward to working on my goals for growing social media, learning Russian and reviewing French, redoing my blog, Marie Kondo-ing my home, releasing new fabric lines and patterns, and much much more. I can't wait.