Patterson developed an interest in folk art shortly after the family relocated to Waterloo due to what she characterized as "a rich heritage of Pennsylvania Dutch and Mennonite handicrafts in the area." On the weekends the family would frequent community auctions where she acquired quilts, embroidered samplers and stoneware. She was equally interested in mythopoeic art and literature writing extensively about of authors representative of the genre including C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, George MacDonald and Dorothy L. Sayers. She was an active Mythlore contributor, reviewing more than 200 books for the publication, in addition to serving as review editor from 1981-1998, and sitting on the journal's editorial board between 1989-1998.
