Hafsa’s story is similar to that of most kids who fall in love with art at a young age. She always kept a diary where she would Doodle, draw and write her routine. While growing up she watched her mother create beautiful quilts and hand-embroideries that made her choose Textile Designing for her university undergrad. She began using pages of her childhood diaries to create Surface Design Patterns in college and graduated with distinction. She worked as a Textile Designer in Pakistan for a few years before immigrating to Canada, where she went to Fashion school. Her Journey at the Fashion school sparked her interest in hands on sewing and opened many opportunities for her. She designed garment for Canada’s 150^th anniversary, which was displayed at Royal Ontario Museum, interned with a Native fashion designer Lesley Hampton and worked on a Research project to create Adaptive Clothing for stroke survivors. But she yearned to paint and create textile patterns, so she joined Northcott Studio.

At Northcott she was introduced to quilting and was also able to combine her love of creating Surface designs and sewing quilts. “Living in a digital age, I love the idea of mixing traditional painting techniques with modern digital software and exploring their relationship in my designs. I love painting in Procreate and achieving the raw hand painted looks digitally”.

Working at Northcott and designing fabrics for the quilting industry has fueled her passion for handmade, patchworked pieces and gave her the idea to start her own small handmade gift business The Doodle Diary. She believes there is a warmth to handmade things because they have a story, life, and history that comes from the person who makes them as well as the person who possesses and cares for them. She currently lives in Thornhill with her daughter and husband who is also an artist, where they sew, paint and explore art together.