Brenda Riddle

“My love of working – playing really – with fabric and threads began when I was a little girl and learned how to embroider. I had seen table covers and doilies that my Mom had from her Mom and Grandma. I felt such a sense of belonging as I was also learning to do the variety of pretty stitches, I could sit & stitch for hours!”

“Then there were the beautiful patchwork quilts that my grandmas had made that Mom kept on the higher shelves in the linen closet. They were a little higher than I could reach but I would always take a peek at them whenever I was asked to get something for my Mom from the lower shelves or when putting away the towels while “helping’” my Mom fold the laundry. (True confession… I still like the process of folding laundry.) The quilts were saved for special occasions, when snuggling and comfort was especially needed – like a cold or just those times when my Mom knew that getting cuddled while wrapped in one of the quilts would help make everything little better. She was so right, they still have that effect on me.”

After 22 years working in the architecture, design and teaching fields, Brenda decided to follow her own design dreams and she started Acorn Quilt & Gift Company. She initially focused on quilts, but over the years she has added designs reflecting her love of embroidery and counted cross-stitch under the name “Brenda Riddle Designs”.

Majoring in environmental and graphic design, Brenda worked in the interior design field in Santa Barbara, California and Minneapolis, Minnesota. She now lives in Oro Valley, Arizona, where she loves to spend much of her free time designing quilts and needlework, and designing fabrics for Moda.

“I love to bring my ‘little acorn’ philosophy to my designs – ‘from little acorns. . . mighty oaks grow’. To me, that means that every project is essentially accomplished in the same manner – no matter how simple or complicated – it is simply taking those little steps, that adds up to our true ‘works of heart’.”