My name is Kelly Mueller and I’m the designer, owner, accountant, and advertising executive of The Wooden Bear. (Did I miss anything?) I’m also a chauffeur, launderer, chef, nurse and overall household engineer for my husband and two sons, ages 6 and 11.

I’ve been doing various crafts, sewing and sketching throughout my whole life, thanks to my mom (who loves ya’ baby!) She always dabbled in all kinds of crafts and always let me join in the fun. My grandparents (Bear and Rosalie) did oil painting, photography, cake decorating, quilting, woodworking… My dad does incredible woodwork and carving. Creativity has always been in my life.

I didn’t actually try quilting until the end of 2000. My husband’s grandmother, Maryon, sent my son a quilt she made with pieced squares and cookie cutters to make appliqué shapes. I thought, “I can do this!” So, without any previous instruction, I dived right in, had some success and was immediately hooked!

In 2002, when I couldn’t find a fall quilt I liked, I purchased a large graph pad and designed my very first quilt. The local quilt store owner encouraged me to make it into a pattern to sell (something I had been thinking about but figured it would take years of experience before I could attempt it). So, I began selling the patterns in her store, then the one in the next town, and it grew and grew… And the degree in accounting has definitely proved to be a great asset (no pun intended.) I actually got an accounting degree thinking someday I would have my own craft business! I was just waiting to find that craft that I thoroughly loved, that could succeed as a business, and allow me to concentrate on my number one love, my family.

Hope you enjoy my designs, and if you make and sell your own crafts, I do allow and encourage you to use my patterns for that purpose! That’s part of the fun! (But please do not copy and sell the actual pattern :o)

Special thanks to my mother-in-law and my sons who help me bag the many thousands of patterns, and to my husband, Brian, who has always supported my dreams!