What is Cat Canyon
and
Who is Teri Mac?


“Cat Canyon" has been a part of my business name for over ten years. First, with my graphic design studio which (when I chose that name) I wanted a name that would come before my competitor in the phone book.

As this section of the site will reveal—I love cats. When looking for a name, I took out an atlas and looked at the four-corner states (CO, UT, AZ, NM) for any interesting landmark. I found a listing for “Cat Creek” but didn’t care for that, so I bounced some other ideas around until one day I saw an illustration of a cougar’s face as part of a canyon wall. (I’ve forgotten the artist’s name, otherwise I’d give credit where credit is due.)

That was how “Cat Canyon” was born and it kind of fit my home where I end up feeding the strays (nobody else will) and taking care of my little “pride”.

Cat Canyon Graphics & Publishing has now developed into Cat Canyon Quilts. Which was the precursor to One Block Only Beginner Quilting.

I would have used Cat Canyon Quilts except after going through SBI’s wonderful website building course, OBO was the better choice for what I was trying to accomplish—getting quilting easy and simple for the beginner quilter. So they could become as fascinated with quilting as I am (and 27 million other quilters are).




Teri Mac


Teri Mac has been my artistic signature for over thirty years. Whether it is
quilting or painting or photography,
I’ve signed everything “Teri Mac”.*

As you noticed in eariler pages I have referred to my Grandma Mac. (I will
have a page on her a little later on.)
Can’t wait to tell you about her $400
quilt!

For as long as I can remember she
was called either Mrs. Mac by the
folks around Ellinwood, Kansas where
she lived most of her life, or by us kids:
Grandma Mac.

*The “Mac” is short for McLaughlin.
Well, here I am. The quilt I'm hiding behind is my very first attempt at machine-quilting. My friend, Darlene Adair had made it for her adorable granddaughter, Cheyenne. A parade of Elephants adorn it and for a first attempt at machine quilting, I did pretty good with it. I loved the bright colors of the Lauren Burch fabrics Darlene chose.

My mother’s family name is Bolton. (Point of semi-interest: one of my (distant) cousins is the singer Michael Bolton. His great grandfather moved to New York state, whereas his brother, my great grandfather, caught the “Kansas Fever” and moved to Lyons, Kansas where he homesteaded the “farm” I grew up with. It’s an interesting story which one of the family compiled.)

Now the really boring stuff:

I was born in Great Bend, Kansas. I spent the first five years in Ellinwood and the next four in Pratt, Kansas. Then we moved to Farmington, NM for a year or so, then Dad was transferred to Colorado, where I’ve been ever since, forty-seven years to be exact.

Along the way, I owned a figure salon (exercise shop) for a couple of years. Worked for several MLM companies. Then I became a Veterinary Assistant for a little over six years.

Then I decided to go back to college at the ripe age of 40 (at that time we Non-Trads outnumbered the Traditional 19-20 year olds). Learned computers through the business school (PCs) and the graphics department (Macs)—prefer the Mac anyday. Ran the Campus Design Studio for over two years.

I quit to start my own business: Cat Canyon Graphics & Publication. An underfunded attempt to break into a business I loved.



PHOTOGRAPHY—My other favorite thing!

Along the way (1986 to be exact) I fell in love with photography and have an amazing gallery of landscape work. I tried to sell them but, at the time, the galleries thought the only photography worth exhibiting was black and white. I remember someone telling me anyone could take color photos. Yeah, right.

But I wasn’t publishing in any of the big photography magazines, which was about the only way to get your name known. No gallery, in my part of the world, was interested. If they were, they wanted over 50% of the asking price. Which meant I’d get nothing for my hard work—the framer and gallery-guy would get it all!

I did, on the other hand, win First place ribbons at the County Fair for several years, especially when I concentrated on the Professional Level. People who see my personal photo gallery are still impressed.



That’s about it for of my boring life. Everything really exciting happened to everyone else in my family. I spent my life as a housewife with the occasional side interest.

When I got into quilting it became my sanity. Which—since I started this website training and building—I haven’t had any time for quilting and that’s driving me nuts!

Now I simply tell people I’m a quilter. In fact, a while back I bought a couple of signs that about sums that all up:

“To Quilt or not to Quilt? What a silly question!!!”

AND

“I’m Creative—you can’t expect me to be neat too.”