Anna Maria Horner grew up in a home full of creativity. Her grandmothers sent her family handloomed wool blankets and hand knits, while her mother crafted constantly. She started crafting when she began to make her own clothes from her mother’s fabric scraps in the 1970s.

In 1995, after graduating with an Honors Fine Arts Degree in Drawing from the University of Tennessee, Anna Maria opened Handmaiden, a clothing and housewares boutique.

It was here that Anna Maria began to sell the clothing line which she and her mother designed and produced. The label took off and was sold across the country.

Anna Maria is also an artist on canvas and she has exhibited in galleries regularly. Her paintings are part of hundreds of private and commercial collections. She is also a writer and photographer.

A common element in all of Anna Maria's work whether clothing, accessories, quilts or paintings is a passion for colour and vibrancy.

Anna Maria has partnered with more than two dozen manufacturers to design homewares, gift items, textiles and last year published her first sewing book, Seams To Me. She now has her own brand, Anna Maria and released Anna Maria Sewing Patterns in March 2009.

Today Anna Maria and her husband, Jeff, live in Nashville with their six children.