When Irene was a young child her mother taught her to knit, sew, crochet and embroider. She enjoyed growing up with these textile arts but it was not until 1983 when she took a quilting class. She then realized what an exciting and diverse variety of techniques quilting had to offer.  Those other needlework pastimes were soon set aside and quilting became her passion. 

As time went by, Irene began teaching quilting classes at home. Little did she know that those first few classes held around her dining room table would lead to so much more. She held countless classes at local quilt shops, workshops and trunk shows at Guilds across Ontario, the CreativFestival Conferences in Toronto and she was also a featured quilter in a Studio 2 production on TVO.

Irene was an avid participant in the now disbanded Quilt Project for Breast Cancer Support; a group that annually made and donated a quilt. While designing the group’s 2004 donation quilt, Irene developed what would become her first commercial quilt pattern. With the encouragement of friends and co-workers, she began to self-publish under the name Brambleberry Cottage Quilts. Since then, her collection of published patterns has grown and expanded and she is now very pleased to be designing patterns for Northcott’s ever-growing fabric collections.