Donna “feels like she’s known Margaret forever,” since she lives only a few miles away from our Elsmere, KY store. She regularly brought her old Singer in for servicing, and eventually bought her daughter a Viking sewing machine to use abroad.”It had to be something easy to service in Europe,and Margaret had the perfect solution.” She loved that little machine so much, she bought an SE for herself shortly after.

A lover of embroidery and quilting, Donna actually picked up sewing as a special education teacher. “I loved helping out in the life skills class – and learned how to sew with them.” She describes herself as an “Avid mender and on-demand sewer” noting that many of her projects are favors for friends or service projects. “God sends people my way and I help them,” she explained. Donna has used her serger to hem all the band uniforms for a local high school, and once she even completely reconstructed a wedding dress for a daughter of her friend. She also loves embroidering items for her 9 grandkids.

Currently she’s trying to master her new Viking EPIC, which she bought during the holidays. The Viking EPIC’s large touch screen, cloud capability, and thousands of decorative stitches ensure it lives up to its name. “It’s quite different from the Diamond I’m used to – but that just means there’s more to learn!” She loves how quiet and smooth it is compared to her other machines, the automatic needle threader, and “all those other things” that make it a joy to learn and sew on.

Despite her busy schedule, Donna takes as many classes at Luke’s as she can. “I love learning new things – part of being a teacher I guess,” she explains. Sewing Adventure, a large two-day event Luke’s holds in the fall, is probably her favorite. That’s where she discovered her favorite tool yet – the magnetic hoop. The magnets secure your fabric in place without leaving creases, and also make it easier to align fabric for embroidery placement. “I’m also looking forward to the Anita Goodesign Party – it’ll be my first one!” She exclaimed. Donna loves all her Anita Goodesign designs for their consistent quality and easy to follow instructions, but has never been able to make it due to scheduling conflicts.