Sophisticated Stitches

Don Linn lives in Redding, California, with his wife and high school sweetheart, Donna. He and Donna have a grown son and daughter who also live in California. Since childhood, Don has loved to make things and to work with his hands. His first sewing projects involved automobile upholstery and making clothes for himself and his wife while in college. Don had an entire career working in various manufacturing facilities as a draftsman. It was here that he dealt with a wide array of geometric shapes while doing machine design work before returning to college. After college he worked in upper management in both the forest products industry and the precast concrete industry. During this time he drew upon his experience as a draftsman in designing machinery and doing production drawings. Don's journey in quilting began after a corporate downsizing. He started out with a longarm machine and not a clue how to operate it. Since then, he has taught himself how to machine quilt, design, and piece quilts. He is now a well-known teacher of machine quilting and piecing classes.