The story behind

Z Axis Quilting

I’ve spent over 40 years working in computer graphics and animation, creating visual work for clients ranging from Hewlett-Packard to the Grateful Dead.

My work has always been about understanding structure, perspective, and how things come together in space.

From Teaching My Daughter to Sew

I didn’t come into quilting the traditional way.

When my daughter got a sewing machine for her 10th birthday, I set out to teach her how to use it.

First, I had to teach myself.

What started as a few pieces of fabric quickly turned into my first quilt top—and before long, I was hooked.

Discovering Precision

About a year later, I came across a paper piecing pattern in a sewing shop in Denver.

What stood out to me immediately was the accuracy of it.

It felt like a system—a way to take something complex and make it buildable.

That idea stayed with me.

The Breakthrough Idea

At the same time, I had years of experience working in 3D software like Symbolics, Alias and Maya.

I started asking a simple question:

What if I could design quilts as structures in space…


and then translate that directly into something sewable?

So I tried it.

And it worked.

Years of Exploration

Over time, I kept refining the process—designing quilts from spatial structures and turning them into real, finished pieces.

I wasn’t just experimenting digitally.

I was proving it in fabric.

The geometric forms I used were rooted in traditional quilt patterns—like the log cabin, flock of geese and other familiar structures—so they stayed logical, buildable, and enjoyable to sew.

You could make something simple and continuous…

or explore something much more intricate.

Building the System

For years, I imagined turning this into something more than a personal process.

With the help of modern tools, I was finally able to build what I had been thinking about all along:

A complete design pipeline for quilting.

Z Axis Quilting allows you to:


Generate complex patterns in minutes

Adjust and refine without starting over

Work visually instead of guessing

Output a clean, numbered, sew-ready pattern instantly

From Screen to Stitch

What still amazes me is how fast something that begins as a simple idea on the screen becomes a pattern you can actually build.

Accurate. Structured. Ready to sew.

And then it becomes something real—fabric, stitching, texture, and a finished quilt.

A Broader Creative Path

Many people also know me as Mystic Mike, the owner of Mystic Hot Springs.

It’s a place built around creativity, experience, and bringing something unexpected into the real world.

That same mindset—taking an idea and turning it into something tangible—is at the heart of Z Axis Quilting.

The Goal

My goal is simple:

To give quilters the same kind of visual clarity and creative freedom that I’ve had in the world of digital design—

while keeping the result precise, practical, and beautiful in fabric.

This isn’t just software.

It’s a new way to design quilts.

 Join Beta