About Rae Iverson
Rae's teaching background and love of historic research are readily apparent in her designing and her kit instructions. She earned a BA in English from the University of Vermont and taught high school English and writing for 15 years. Awarded grant money five different times from the school district, she designed and implemented five new courses of study, including a district-wide Shakespeare Festival, Creative Writing for Gifted and Talented, and an AP honors program of literature from an historic perspective. She was selected as a master teacher for an NEH grant at the University of Vermont Graduate School for English, and, for its duration, taught teachers how to use writing as a process for learning every discipline. She has taught literature and creative writing as an adjunct professor for South Carolina universities and colleges.
From 1975-90, Rae studied art privately with artists in her community, focusing on close-up photography, high contrast black & white photography, charcoal and watercolor. Her charcoal sketches, cartoons and photography were exhibited in a local gallery.
Based on her writing and teaching, Rae was selected for the master's program at the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT. She attended Lincoln College, Oxford University, Oxford, England, and earned her MA in literature. She has several publications to her credit including journals of poetry and art.
Always involved in needlework of some kind, Rae learned about counted
thread embroidery in 1987 when her sister introduced her to Norwegian
hardanger. In 1994, she debuted Moss Creek Designs, Inc. with 12
designs at the Charlotte International Needlework Market. Within
the year, her work was being distributed by Hoffman Media, as well
as distributors in England, Scotland, and Australia, and she was
once again being called upon to teach. For five years she was associated
with Spirit of Cross Stitch, then Heart of Cross Stitch, taking
her art and passion on the road. Since 1996, in addition to teaching
at Celebration of Needlework, Christmas in Williamsburg, EGA and
sampler guilds around the country, and maintaining her regular design
schedule, she and her husband have sponsored the seminar A Stitchers'
Gathering, first on Hilton Head, SC and now at the historic Seelbach
Hilton in Louisville, KY. The seminar brings together 84 advanced
stitchers and 3 nationally recognized teachers where the emphasis
is on learning new techniques and aspects of hand embroidery within
the appropriate historic context.
Always drawn to the arts as the voice of history, Rae's designs have brought to the American stitcher not only the color and design styles associated with her own Welsh and Danish heritage, but also historic techniques from other cultures: Italian Casalguidi stumpwork, Irish Mountmellick, 17th century English motifs, Ukrainian embroidery, German Schwalm Whitework, and the needlework heritage of Colonial America. She has become known for the breadth of her needlework technique, her excellent written instructions, and the clarity of her graphing. She has been awarded Best Embroidery Designer in America four times by Coats & Clark through the auspices of the Internation Needlework Retailers Guild. Her work has been featured in several national publications and she is a regular contributor to the Just CrossStitch annual Christmas issue.
Rae and her husband Ron have been operating Moss Creek Designs, Inc. since 1994. They lived in Vermont for over 30 years where they raised their two sons, Geoffrey, a computer engineer with Cisco Systems in San Jose, CA, and Andrew, a contract attorney in Denver, CO. They now live in Cave Creek, AZ where they share their home in the desert with Kaibab, a smart, frisbee-catching golden retriver.
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