Maureen Sorenson-Appleton ~ Biography
Maureen is a lifetime native of Northeastern Wisconsin, and raised healthily with a large Irish Catholic family in De Pere, Wisconsin, a wonderfully quaint and charming community just south of Green Bay, where Maureen has resided now for her entire life. Her formal education is in the medical field, and has placed her in Diagnostic Services at a Green Bay hospital for forty+ years. She recently retired.
Maureen acquired a fondness of needleart at a very early age when her Mother allowed the children to dabble with the ever so meticulous collection of cotton embroidery floss she used to embellish the children’s clothing, and such. Maureen saved her early earnings from babysitting to visit the local variety store to purchase additional skeins of this beloved embroidery floss. Thus began her legacy. She embroidered various household items, and in particular is most fond of a dresser scarf she created for the girls May alter. She still treasures this creation. That was at the age of eight. Like a new box of crayons in her Easter basket, she charmed this collection.
With the birth of her daughter in 1976, erupted her acclaimed The Heart’s Content, Inc. After a lengthy, but not fruitful, search for a birth announcement pattern, she decided to create her own. Never introduced properly to the medium of linen, she decided to thread her needle to this lovely 40-count natural linen (ahh! from Dublin), and simply executed a tiny cross stitch on each and every linen intersection. That historical birth announcement today holds great pride in Maureen’s soul, and though her first trade show experience was claimed “the lady in the first aisle that has stitched it wrong on linen”, Maureen regards this simply as her best mistake she has ever made. It immediately created a career out of her hobby. God granted her excellent eye sight to teach thousands of stitchers the art of “one over one” linen stitching. Detail and clarity evolved from every creation.
For over forty years, Maureen has graced the needles of stitchers worldwide with her gentle, most infinitively detailed needleart creations on the premium Scottish Glenshee linen, which her sub company, The Linen Emporium, solely distributes nationwide. Her line of Glenshee linen is imported from Edinburgh, Scotland.
Artist, author, and designer, Maureen enjoys the needleart design career she has so dearly nurtured her entire life. She lives with her new husband Dennis, and finds great companionship with her lovely daughter, Andrea, an avid model stitcher for her mother, and the most adorable granddaughter,five year old Stella Irene. Numerous days spent together with cupcakes and giggles. Story telling is their favorite time together. On the few sunny days in Wisconsin, she also delights in gardening, fishing, and golf.