Home: Churchville, Maryland
“I want children to be do-ers of life and not just watch-ers. I hope my writing inspires them to laugh and read out loud; one day it may lead to art and creative thinking.”
Fitzgerald was born in Philadelphia, PA but grew up in Taiwan and Japan. She obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering at Drexel University and opened Colourful Stitches in 1999. Its first subsidiary, FPI Publishing was launched in 2005 with the publication of her first two books. Its second subsidiary, Tools by Gyleen was launched in 2010 with the Pineapple Tool. In 2011, she obtained the Trademark for her Butterfly Seam.
Those formative years in the Far East developed her love for simplistic artistry. She began needlework at the very young age of 4 and has since pursued artistic expression in drawing and quilt making. Her quilts blend colour, pattern and texture to provide a contemporary essence to traditional quilting. Her strength as a quilter is demonstrated by the infusion of engineering tools and techniques to simplify visually complex quilts. Her writing life came much later; she started with technical reports, moved to technical instructions and finally got the courage to do creative organized thinking. Her written works center around Haiku poetry, Quilt project books, patterns and magazine articles and of course the crème de la crème, children’s books.
As an artist she has achieved “Best of Show” recognition; as a writer and publisher she has achieved award winning status with Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings. Gyleen has appeared on The Quilt Show and Lifetime TV promoting finishing antique quilts and the new spirit of traditional quilting. Gyleen has an active social media presence on three Facebook group pages and in the Forum of The Quilt Show’s website.
For Gyleen, quilting is the passion which colours her world as her writing journey continues.
Visit Gyleen’s website.
Please let Gyleen know you found her on The Quilter’s Calendar!
