About Us

Turning Twenty® is a family owned and operated company.  There are just 5 of us girls with very supportive husbands and a great group of friends who make up our team!  You can meet each of us as you scroll down the page.  We do our very best to design and publish fast, easy, fun quilt patterns and whimsical embroideries to satisy your every crafty need!  Our designs are the perfect place to start if you are a beginner looking for oh-so-easy quilts or a seasoned quilter looking for quick, beautiful projects that can be completed in a day and bust through those fabric stashes...that none of us really have ;)

In 1980 Tricia was bitten by the not-so-rare, but life-changing, quilt bug.  If you are reading this you must know there is no cure and you never recover from that bite.  Using patterns found in magazines, she learned a little more with each quilt she made.  No zippers & no fitting – she had finally found her creative passion!  In time she began to create her own designs and found tremendous satisfaction in her work.  In 1994, she purchased her first longarm quilting machine and taught herself how to just let go and quilt FREESTYLE! What fun!! 

Not long after that, Leisure Arts published Tricia's first four books giving her the confidence to keep moving forward.  In 2002 Tricia designed the first Turning Twenty® pattern and FriendFolks Publishing Company was born.  In 2006 we added digitized machine embroidery to our product line.  By 2013 our company had become known as "The Turning Twenty" people, so we officially changed our name from FriendFolks to Turning Twenty® and never looked back.  We market quilt books, patterns, hand embroidery, and machine embroidery disks to customers, distributors, and shops all around the world.

There is nothing better than working with family and as the years have gone by and babies have grown up, one by one the Turning Twenty Girls have joined the business.  As the company grew, so did our need for talented and dedicated women to help us.  We are constantly seeking out and developing our Turning Twenty Team - pattern designers, sample makers, digitizers, graphic artists...it takes a village and without them we could never do what we do!  The Girls each have their own passions and unique talents - read more about what makes them so special below.

Our goal is to provide you with excellent customer service from design to delivery.  
The Turning Twenty Girls are here for you <3

The Turning Twenty® Girls

I was born in Duncan, Oklahoma but only lived there about a year. I grew up in Texas and have been here ever since. As far back as I can remember I busied myself  creating beautiful things - well, at least what "I" thought was beautiful!

With a pointed tree branch, I marked off rooms in the dirt to make the house I played in as a little girl. Using mama's kitchen broom, my dirt floors took on the look of decorated tile with accents of swishes and swirls. Smooth rocks and pretty weeds became lovely home decor sitting on top of salvaged wooden Coca-Cola crates. The water hose, an old coffee can, spoons borrowed from mama’s kitchen, and lids for pie pans, were all I needed to make some pretty special mud pies. Set out in the sun to bake, with carefully added sunflower petals, they were spectacular creations!  I remember one particularly hot summer day I finally convinced my baby brother that my pies truly were edible...but then mama got involved and I'm still trying to forget how that day turned out!  Take it from me... crusty, warm, hard dirt and water really does NOT taste very good at all!

I sorted through colorful scraps left over from mama's dressmaking to sew clothes for my dolls. My maternal grandmother taught me to crochet and embroider when I was 9 years old and I still love to sit and embroider for hours on end.  I crocheted so many afgans in the 70's that I've set aside the yarn and big hooks.  Now, when I crochet, it is a delicate, lacy doily.

Alas, lt was my freshman homemaking class that almost brought my creating to a standstill.  My teacher was excellent I suppose, but at the time she just seemed too picky!  The day came when each girl in class was to model her own creation.  I loudly declared that I would NEVER sew another stitch. The dreadful zipper in my A-line skirt was sewn in and ripped out – sewn in and ripped out so many times it looked awful. I guess Mrs. Young decided that I had ripped out enough stitches because she finally gave me a passing grade.  With my best posture, and all the poise of a 15 year old, gangly teenage girl, I modeled my PURPLE & BLUE FLORAL skirt and double breasted blazer.  (ugh! the things we had to wear back then) The holes surrounding my skirt zipper were large enough that my slip showed through!  And as if my runway walk had not been humiliating enough, when I came home from school, mama insisted she needed a photo of me modeling my lovely creation. Well, you know when mama gets out the camera you might as well just shut up and stand still.  I still have that photo and should post it here for you to see......or well, maybe not!

In 1968, three days after my 18th birthday, I married my high school sweetheart.  Oddly enough, I did return to the sewing machine after all. I sewed scads of those tent-like maternity tops, made pretty dresses for our little Michelle, costumes for parties and school plays for both Scott and Michelle. Then came the wedding – it was such a joy to sew our daughter’s beautiful wedding gown. More than a hundred covered buttons – BUT NO ZIPPER! It took four months to make her dress and hour on top of hour hand sewing seed beads. But, for as long as I live I will never forget the sight of our baby girl on her daddy’s arm as she seemed to glide down the aisle on her special day.  Michelle's wedding gown really WAS the end of my garment sewing days.

In 1980, I discovered quilting and (if you've read our story above, then you know the rest!). I’ve been so blessed with an understanding and supportive husband, who runs our business. Without Gary I would never have been brave enough to enter the world of marketing!  I’ve designed for, and work closely with, Dill Buttons of America. I've designed whimsical fabrics for companies such as Northcott.  Currently, we are researching a few new product ideas and more directions for Turning Twenty® to go.  Mainly though, we just try to keep looking forward and enjoying this journey.   

We are thankful for every opportunity that comes our way and I'll forever be grateful to all the people who advised me to follow the dream in my heart.  Knowing our future is in the hands of our Creator, we'll just continue to rest and be glad.     :-) 

Louise King is Tricia's mama and MeMaw to all of the rest of us!  So many have asked us the story behind  Love Covers and MeMaw is that story.  Louise taught Sunday School and each week as she prepared for her classes, she drew sweet little drawings for the children to color as she told them about Jesus and shared His love for them.  In 2004, MeMaw drew her little blocks again and Gary and Tricia designed a quilt featuring them.  That quilt is Love Covers.  It was so popular that it continued to sell out and finally went out of print.  After hundreds of requests and to honor MeMaw on her 83rd birthday, we released Love Covers with a fresh new design and it immediately went right back to a top seller.  MeMaw is one of the most precious women you could ever know and our family was truly blessed when God sent us to her.  We pray you feel her love surround you when you work on your own Love Covers quilt but even more, we pray you feel Jesus' Love Cover you.  UPDATE: MeMaw went home to be with our Lord on January 4, 2017.  We miss her so very much, but we know we will see her again soon.

Michelle Barnett is Tricia's daughter.  After a 20 year career in sales, management, and corporate training, she joined Turning Twenty® as Director of Sales and Marketing.  She also handles the day-to-day running of the business.  If you call or email us, you will most likely reach Michelle.  She makes sure all of your orders get packaged and shipped each day as well as takes care of booking events and scheduling our travel.  Michelle is passionate about Scrapbooking, Bible Journaling, and is a Type A personality Planner Nerd - she loves all things organized and scheduled!  If you love scrapping, journaling, or are obsessed with planners, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and our blog.  She is going to start sharing some of those passions with us all!

Hailey Byrd is Michelle's daughter.  She is a hard-working Stay At Home Mom of two precious little boys, Jude (4) and Ezra (1).  Hailey has talents in many areas and is our go-to-gal for so many things!  She is our photographer and handles all of our social media. She also does a lot of graphics for us and assembles all of the patterns that go out to you all. She is our resident fashionista and crochets up a storm (she sells some of her beauties right here on our site! Check out her creations here!).  She has a passion for artistic photography, health, fitness, and cooking.  She will be sharing on our blog and social media as well, so "Like" and "Follow" us and we will see you there!  (Yes, we really do engage with everyone on social media - we love it as much as you do!)

Rebecca Cribbs is married to Scott (Tricia's son) and is a precious part of our family!  She is the owner of CrackerTown Professional Longarm Quilting in Graham, TX.  She does longarm quilting for the public, and she does a lot of our quilting for us.  Tricia has decided to sell her machine now that Rebecca has her business and so CrackerTown will be doing even more of our quilting.  She is an excellent quilter and we highly recommend her if you are looking for someone to quilt your treasures!  Check her out here.

Miss Lily Grace Barnett is Kyle's daughter (Kyle is Michelle's son).  She is so adorable, we had to give her two pictures!  Lily is 4 years old and is our model whenever we need one.  She is also learning to stitch and sew.  Lily loves to blog and has a few posts on our blog that are so much fun to read.  Be sure to check it out!  She loves gymnastics, loves to stitch and sew, loves to cook and is obsessed with ALL things pink!  We are enjoying watching this beautiful Turning Twenty Girl blossom into a precious little lady.

The Turning Twenty® Team

Meet our team of extremely talented designers, digitizer, and sample makers.  These are some of the most amazing women and we are blessed to call them Friends!  They help make this business run...yes, we are blessed indeed!

 Be sure to follow us to see everything we are up to!  It's not just quilting anymore!