About Me

Quilt Pattern Designer, Tech Editor, Ghost Writer, and Globe Trotter

Hi, I'm Jaqueline, the quilter behind Stitching Across the Globe. I am an American living in Germany with my high school sweetheart, where we are living our best wanderlust life. I combine my love for travel and a passion for quilting into designs inspired by beautiful global destinations. I also love helping other quilt pattern designers bring their patterns to life as a tech editor and ghost writer. 

Jaqueline Matteson stand next to the quilt Gates of the Arctic

Do you love the comforts of home and the coziness of beautiful quilts? Do you also love adventure, travel, and seeing new places? Whether you are a jet setter or an armchair traveler, this is the place for you.

A Patchwork of Travels

I have always had a passion for exploring new places. I got the opportunity to go on my first international trip as a teenager and the travel bug bit hard. I have visited over 20 countries on 4 continents, and am still counting. It also doesn't hurt that my husband's career moves us frequently, in almost 20 years of marriage we have lived in 4 U.S. states and 3 different countries on 3 different continents. 

The frequent moves allows me to be what I call a permanent tourist. I get to live in a place and see the normal everyday life of where we are living, but I also get to explore like a tourist. I am able to travel deeper and visit more of the lesser know or off the beaten path places. I love getting to be a local while also exploring a new country.

A Life in Stitches

I learned to sew when I was very young, I honesty don't remember the first time I sat at a sewing machine, it's always just been a part of my life. When my husband's military career took us to Alaska I joined my first quilt guild. This amazing community of women and 10 feet of snow in the winter were all the motivation I needed to spend more time in my sewing room and dive deeper into this passion of mine. I always joke that in Alaska I had hiking season and quilting season. 

Something I love about quilting is that the process is always changing. I get board easily when doing the same thing over and over again, but in quilting each step of the process is different. I love getting to let my imagination run wild, create a design, and pick out the perfect fabrics. Then the cutting and piecing and ironing. And who doesn't love the big ta-da moment of a quilt top reveal? If I'm honest, I don't love basting my quilts, but its all part of the process. Then the machine quilting, which always feels like an exploration and learning experience to me. Finally binding, which I love to do by hand. Each part of the process challenges me and comforts me in a different way. 

Piecing It Together and Starting a Business

I have always mainly wrote my own patterns. With my travel inspiration as my guiding force I could rarely find quilt patterns that matched the idea I was seeing in my head. My husband rarely saw me using actual, formal quilt patterns. One day while I surfing through patterns on-line, he looked over my should and said "you can do that". I asked him "what? buy this pattern", and he responded "no, write quilt patterns". He doesn't even remember this conversation, but it stuck with me and kept replaying in my head over and over.

So when his career moved us to South Korea in 2023 and I had to leave my accounting job, I decided it was time to start my own business and Stitching Across the Globe was born. It was time to take all these ideas in my head, inspired by so many beautiful destinations around the globe, and create patterns that I could share with the world. I want you to feel the essence of a place. To be transport to somewhere lovely, whether it be to a memory of a beloved destination, or a dream of a destination yet to be visited.

With my background in accounting I also quickly fell in love with tech editing and ghost writing. The analytical and mathematical parts of quilt pattern writing excite me just as much as the creative side. And if I'm being honest, the introvert in me loves the quiet, behind the scenes work that goes into creating and editing a pattern. I love being able to help other quilt pattern designers get their ideas out into the world.

Threaded Tidbits: Little Things About Me

  • I love looking for squirrels when I travel because they can look so drastically different in different parts of the world.
  • I have a masters degree in Accounting, and worked as a contractor auditor for almost a decade. 
  • I met my husband (and partner in crime) in marching band in high school.
  • My cat, Milo, is a foster fail. He knew I would adopt him before I did. 
  • One of my favorite travel quotes is "The beauty of travel is that someone else's ordinary becomes your extraordinary."
  • I love to drink "dessert" coffee. In Vietnam I learned to put condensed milk in my coffee, you should seriously try it.

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