At 49 years old, Cathey realized that in order to be happy, she needed to make her passion her career. She had been been training for it her whole life. Along with her lifelong experience designing, creating, and sewing, she has years of education and experience in retailing. Quilting gives her such joy which motivates her to create patterns and products that simplify quilting and allow busy individuals to feel the satisfaction of creating beautiful pieces of art.

She began designing and selling patterns at a local quilt shop in 2012. Not long after, Checkers Distributors’ Cut Loose Press program began publishing her patterns. She soon had over 50 patterns published! With the confidence she was gaining, she submitted designs elsewhere. She's had several designs in Quilter’s World magazine and with Annie’s special interest publications and books.

She began to realize that there was one block that she used frequently in her patterns because of its endless design possibilities. Wanting to simplify and streamline the making of this block, she designed a ruler that can be used for cutting fabric squares, marking stitching lines, and squaring blocks. The Y Block Ruler™ creates identical (no mirror image) quarter square triangle units used in making Y Blocks, Quarter Square Triangle Blocks, and many other blocks with NO bias edges. She is having so much fun sharing the design possibilities of the Y Block Ruler™ and the patterns that she creates using it.

Website: www.catheymariedesigns.com