Quilting success leads young professional and St. Clair business owner to international recognition

On the table next to Cassie Harms there's a hot cup of coffee as she works intensely at a sewing machine, delighted in the quilt she’s making for a friend.

“I’d be the one sitting at the foot pedal while my mom was doing all of the [sewing] machine work,” says Cassie Harms. “As I got older I learned more from her, as well as local quilt shops and taking classes with my grandma."Harms is the owner of Cassie Harms Designs in St. Clair, where she designs and creates quilts. At the age of 25, in the quilting world Harms is something of an anomaly due to her age where according to Craft Industry Alliance, the average quilter is usually a retired woman around 65 years old.

A former accountant with a Master’s degree from Oakland University, Harms has currently put her focus exclusively on running her business.

“The main thing I do is submit my quilt designs, ideas, and colorways to numerous publications, where people can then download them and use it as a template to create their own quilts," Harms says. "For local clients, I also do memory quilts, t-shirt quilts, and memory bears.”

How does one get into quilt making you may wonder? Well in Harms’ case, her mom is a seamstress, so she has always been around sewing machines, fabrics, and the like.
Turkey Tom's House, Cassie Harms' first solo design highlighted in the fall 2022 issue of Quilter's World.

A few of Harms' favorite tools and a test block.“I’d be the one sitting at the foot pedal while my mom was doing all of the [sewing] machine work,” she says. “As I got older I learned more from her, as well as local quilt shops and taking classes with my grandma. Around 12 is when I decided to get into quilting more than any other kind of textile work.”

Today, her work can be found in a multitude of publications around the world such as Annie’s Publishing and Quilting Daily.

“I was recently published in an Australian magazine titled Make Modern, I also have a bunch of other publications coming as well,” Harms says. “In addition to that, I also do the Instagram-style reel videos for Annie's Publishing. So if you ever check out their social media pages, my hands are usually the ones showing the techniques and walking you through the steps.”

To see more of her work, visit facebook.com/cassieharmsdesigns.