About B, The Short Version
Hi! I’m B, also known as Rebecca Danger! I am a modern craft pattern designer and I live by the ocean in Birch Bay, Washington with my husband, Mr Danger, my boys Presley and Maverick, and my two small and fluffy dogs named Coco and Juniper.
I am a big fan of naps, tea, unicorns, and the beach, and I feel most at home in front of a sewing machine. I love color and simplicity, and I work hard to slow down and spend time in my studio. I hope to be an inspiration to others to bring more joy into their lives by making time to create.
About B, The Long Version
I have always loved to create. When I was a little girl my mom would take me to the library all the time to encourage me to read. She and I would get in fights because all I would check out were craft books and she wanted me to be reading stories and chapter books. I started making clothes for my stuffed animals on my mom’s old Kenmore sewing machine when I was about 8. I had no idea what I was doing, nothing ever fit my toys because I didn’t know about seam allowances, and I spent more time fighting with the bobbin than actually sewing.
My grandma taught me to knit when I was about 14 and I was hooked. I knit all through high school and college, even when I was in class. I never followed a pattern, I just made everything up as I went along. I honed my skills the summer after my senior year in high school when I decided to knit a blanket for each of my 6 closest friends as graduation gifts. Somehow I got them all done before every one headed off to college in the fall!
When I was about 15 my super talented quilter neighbor taught me to sew. She and I sewed through a Simplicity pattern for a purse and she taught me so much that I have been sewing professionally ever since.
I started a business making handbags in 2000 when I was 16 and sold to a few local shops. I continued to grow that business to the point where my husband and I both worked for my company full time and we had a 3,000 sq ft retail and manufacturing space and three full time employees. We did that until 2008 when between a combination of me burning myself out and a significant dip in our sales thanks to the recession I realized I needed a change.
I put my first knitting pattern up for sale in February 2009 and since then I have written nearly 200 published knitting and sewing patterns, 5 books that have been translated into multiple languages, written patterns for multiple other books and magazines and yarn companies, taught nationwide, met 1,000’s of knitters, and even been on a knitting TV show!
In 2016 I started doing digital illustration on my iPad and selling my art at local shows. I found much success with this, offering my designs on everything from mugs, to enamel pins, to socks, to tote bags and more. When the coronavirus toppled the world on its head in March of 2020, all of my shows were indefinitely cancelled.
Thankfully I was able to think on my feet and pivot my business online and started offering care packages featuring my art in July 2020. They were quickly successful to the point where I filled a 325 box order for a corporate account by October that year. Christmas was a blur of sales and by Valentine’s sales in 2021 I needed a break. I had the business I though I wanted, but I had quickly realized being lead production, shipping manager, warehouse manager, accountant, janitorial team, and main design director was just too much.
I stopped working and started doing a lot of reading on mindfulness and took a MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) class. As I was taking a break from working I decided to take time to do things I enjoyed that I had not had time recently. I was immediately drawn to the boxes of fabric and half finished quilts that hadn’t been opened since I had moved back to Birch Bay in 2016. I decided to finish up some projects and immediately remembered there is no where I am as at home as in front of a sewing machine!
That’s when I realized that making, sharing my creations, and writing patterns to help others be creative is why I am on this planet. That’s how we got here with you reading this when I started blogging and sharing my quilt and craft patterns again in November 2021.
I decided to switch everything to be under a new name: B In The Studio. My Dad calls me B, and with all of my recent work on mindfulness and simplifying it seems fitting for me at this point. The “In The Studio” parts comes from the fact that I have always called my work space my studio, even when I was a teen and was sewing in one corner of my bedroom. And, I love the double reminder with this name to take time to B(e) In The Studio, even when life gets crazy.
Thank you to all of you who have followed along on my creative journey over the years, you mean the world to me and inspire me to keep creating every day! And welcome to all of you new to my wacky world, I hope you can we can share our creative joy with each other!