Courtney Mulvey brings bold colors, playful ideas, and a love of sewing to her quilts and patterns. From colorful fabrics to cowboy aliens riding horses, her creative world is full of surprises. With a little planning and a lot of imagination, Courtney shows us that sometimes the best thing to do is simply make something cool!
What did you love to make or create when you were a child? Were you always drawn to making things with your hands?
I dabbled in sewing as a kid. In my early teen years I made denim bags for friends for their birthdays. They were simple, just a pair of jeans cut off and sewn shut at the bottom. I loved decorating them with puffy paint and whatever iron on applique pieces I could find at JoAnn’s or Hobby Lobby.
What started as a “hyperfixation”, somehow became a creative space you never wanted to leave. What was happening when that first sewing obsession began?
My start in sewing set off a domino effect of fixations. Hyperfixations can be debilitating. They absolutely consume your life until your brain decides to let go of what you are fixated on. I have spent days with next to no sleep obsessing over fabric colors and choosing the perfect pattern. Sometimes it is rat hammocks. Sometimes it is bags or baby quilts or pattern making. My first sewing adventure started in the trenches of COVID in 2021 because of pet rats.
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My first sewing hyperfixation began with a pair of rats I bought for my daughter during the height of COVID in 2021. She really wanted all the fancy hammocks, and I really didn’t want to pay $30 for them.
I went down a rabbit hole and by the time it was said and done, I spent a lot more than $30 and I made and designed a ton of hammocks, cubes, hides and snuffle mats.
My boyfriend’s birthday was around the corner in January 2022. After spending literal months doing nothing but making rat hammocks and trying to make it a business like any ADHDer does when they start a new hobby, I got bored when I realized the market was incredibly niche and saturated. In my boredom, while doom scrolling Pinterest for rat ideas, I saw something about jelly roll quilts.
Armed with an out of time Singer Heavy Duty, the wrong sized bobbins, a school ruler, a pair of scissors, and no iron, I made a throw sized jelly roll race quilt and appliqued a traditionally pieced tractor onto the bottom. I’m not real sure how I managed it, but he loved it.
Fast forward a few years and some failed quilt making business endeavors, the unimaginable happened. JoAnn Fabrics closed. I had no clue what I was going to do or where I was going to buy fabric. I had bought a mini fat quarter bundle of Tula Pink Tiny Beasts that I literally kept on a shelf like a trophy at a festival in 2023 and I was too scared to cut it. I felt like quilt shops were for professionals and people who actually knew what they were doing.
Designer fabric felt totally untouchable and out of my league until I was, again, scrolling Pinterest. I saw a post that said something like, “Use the good fabric. You can’t appreciate it if it is sitting hidden in a tote.”
This sparked my ADHD brain into finding a new project for my beloved Tiny Beasts. My parents had just moved to Florida and my daughter needed plane snacks. I needed a bag. I focused for days on nothing but bag patterns. Like, I literally only slept a few hours: Pinterest, Sallie Tomato, Etsy. I finally chose a sling bag and made it.
I found my next fixation. Designer fabric and bag making. I made it into my first quilt shop in Sarasota. I had never seen so much designer fabric in person. I went a little nuts and bought ten pounds of fabric. I had to get an extra carry on to get home with it.
Back to fixating on bags- I needed stabilizer. This meant I needed to go to another quilt shop and I still felt like I didn’t belong. I walked into my local quilt shop waiting for the guillotine to drop, but was met with some of the kindest, most welcoming people I’ve met.
I was constructing my second ever bag and remaking and designing the pattern like I knew what I was doing. You don’t know things are supposed to be hard until someone tells you it is.
The shop hooked me up with my stabilizer and eventually got me set up with my Janome 8200qcp, Reagan, and my first quilting class, FPP.
FPP was the answer to my precision paralysis. My obsession over making sure all my points match was finally a thing of the past. It was now Christmas and I spent roughly a week making FPP stockings for my entire family. I literally made four large FPP stockings, each with a different design, in seven days… all while homeschooling my daughter, taking her to therapies and doctor appointments and taking care of everything else a mom takes care of.
When did you begin designing your own projects instead of simply following patterns?
I did not use a pattern to make a quilt until I made the WoolyPetals Ghost Party quilt. I loved it so much that I made two. I have been figuring it out and designing as I go from the beginning. It was not until recently that I learned other people may like to make what I like, so I started writing patterns.
Looking back, what do you think kept you coming back to sewing when so many other hobbies could have captured your attention?
I love sewing because every project is different. Even if you are sewing the same thing, the project looks or feels different every time. Sewing projects progress quickly. If something breaks, you take it apart, fix it, and quickly see that it is fixed. Instant gratification and visibility is a wonderful thing.
What makes a design feel like “you”? Is it color, humor, subject matter, the way you piece it, or something else?
Color. If it isn’t colorful, it isn’t me. Once I learned about designer fabrics and fabrics that were nearly neon and exploding with color, I never turned back. I love to choose a fun feature fabric or idea and build a whole project around it.
What kinds of things make you stop and think, “That would make a great quilt”?
I haven’t thought a whole lot about quilts lately, but it is often that I see a fabric and think about how well it will go with something in my collection. If I could sew as fast as my brain works I would be unstoppable.
How important is play in your creative work? Do you give yourself permission to make something simply because it sounds fun?
I’m trying really hard to be better at this. I fixate on one project at a time.
It is very difficult for me to jump across projects. It is not common for me to have more than one WIP. If I put a project to the side, it is extremely unlikely I will ever come back to it. Luckily, I am fairly fast so it hasn’t been too big of an issue yet. My resolution for the coming year is to make time to make fun things for myself.
With that said, I don’t make things that I don’t enjoy. My brain simply won’t let me do things I don’t like. I will literally sit and stare at my machine and the fabric I’ve been made to use and can’t make my hands work. Executive dysfunction is a major problem in my creative space. I have learned to politely decline projects that don’t align with my vision.
Take us inside your creative space. What would we see if we walked into your studio on a typical sewing day?
Most mornings you will find my daughter working through classes, my cat asleep on my table, and me working on a project of some sort.
My sewing space has evolved from a yoga mat covered card table in the living room, to a modge podge of tables in a highly organized spare bedroom in my house.
Most of my work is done late at night after my daughter goes to bed. I tend to watch true crime documentaries or musicals while sewing… the radio is also typically playing some kind of millennial club music softly in the background. My cat, Tallulah Aileen (she has murder mittens) is never more than a few feet away. I call her Tula for short.
My favorite thing in my studio, next to my janome and fabric stash, is my basket swing. Something about rocking in my swing and watching The Greatest Showman or live action Aladdin really just clears my head and lets me be creative.
How do you organize your fabric? Are you a carefully sorted stash person, a “creative piles everywhere” person, or somewhere in between?
I am obsessive over my fabric stash. It is all organized by color, and sometimes by collection, on diy foam poster board bolts. It is all out on display because if I can’t see it, my brain doesn’t remember it exists. My scraps are organized by relative size, and I go through them a few times a year to organize them by color and designer.
Foundation paper piecing is an important part of your work. What do you love about FPP that keeps you coming back to it?
I love FPP because it is precise and allows for quick, measurable progress. Traditional piecing stresses me out. If my points aren’t perfect, I redo it repeatedly. FPP allows me to make fun, detailed designs and keep things as on point as possible before my brain decides I’m not interested anymore.
What makes a good FPP pattern, in your opinion? What are you thinking about when you design one?
I think any good pattern starts with an index. There is nothing worse than sorting through a pattern and not being able to find what you need. All of my patterns have an index and labels on each page.
Color is another important factor in my patterns. If it isn’t pretty I’m not looking at it. I have a tendency to skip over italics like they don’t even exist, color takes their place.
I try to make my patterns accessible to all types of spicy and not so spicy brains. I want makers to look at my patterns and be excited to start, not overwhelmed.
How much planning happens before you make the first stitch? Are you a careful planner or do you like to see where the idea takes you?
Hours. Sometimes days or months. As I have mentioned several times, I obsess over the perfect lineup for my projects. I have a notebook full of planned pages and color coded patterns with notes and modifications. I try to be as meticulous as possible in planning colors and patterns and balancing them so the feature fabrics or FPP can shine.
How do you know when an idea is ready to become a pattern?
My FPP patterns tend to start as some kind of funny idea from conversations with friends. Sometimes they start as inspiration from art I’ve seen in the wild. I also just really love dinosaurs.
Do you ever have too many ideas at once? If so, how do you decide which one gets your attention?
Like many ADHD people, my brain is like a browser with 42 tabs open, 3 of them are playing audio at the same time, and a couple are flashing. These days I tend to choose my projects based on deadlines and necessity. In the past I have chosen based on which fabrics I’m most excited to use.
What part of the process gives you the biggest creative rush: coming up with the idea, choosing fabrics, designing, sewing, or seeing the finished piece?
I love planning and mapping my projects. It gives me a chance to touch all my fabric and hang out with my cat at night in silence. It is my chance to have me time and just let myself be me and focus on what I love.
What have you learned about yourself through making? Has sewing taught you anything that reaches beyond the sewing room?
Sewing has taught me to believe in myself and that I am capable of doing cool things. It has taught me that I really do have talents that other people enjoy. It has given me the confidence to show off the things I am proud of.
What are you excited to make next? Is there an idea sitting in your head right now that you simply cannot leave alone?
I have a project I’ve been turning over in my mind for months. I think I finally have it almost ready to put on paper and then begin sewing. I’m excited to get this project made and ready to use.
Where can people see your work?
People can find my work on my Instagram (@hyperfixation.quiltstudio), Facebook (Hyperfixation Quilt Studio www.facebook.com/hyperfixationquiltstudio) and my website (www.hyperfixationquiltstudio.com).
Rapid-Fire Fun:
- Favorite color? Electric bubblegum pink.
- Most-used sewing tool? Wonder Clips and Tula’s snips with the hook on the end.
- Most unusual thing you’ve ever put on a quilt? Cowboy aliens riding horses.
- A fabric you could never throw away? Anything from Tula’s ROAR! Collection and RSS Starry… and RSS Speckled.
- One word that describes your creative style. Can I use two? Controlled chaos.
- What’s bringing you joy today? My family. My cat. My friends. My art.
Something else I’d like to add-
Oftentimes, you don’t know things are supposed to be difficult until someone tells you it is. If you see something cool, make it. Sometimes you’ll surprise yourself.
Interview posted October 2026