Kristy Moeller Ottinger was born in Tipton, Indiana. She is the older of two girls born to Herbert and Lucy Moeller, who raised their children to be resourceful and—it turns out—creative. If they wanted something, they were encouraged to create it themselves. Making was a part of life in the Moeller household, where Herbert was a cabinetmaker and Lucy a dressmaker. At the tender age of nine, Ottinger began learning the sewing skills that would lead to her eventual focus on fiber art. A lifelong learner, Ottinger earned degrees in Bible, education, and art. She taught elementary school art until 2016 when she left to pursue her art full time.

Best known for her narrative art quilts, Ottinger embellishes her work relentlessly, using found objects, mixed media, embroidery, paint, and even writing. As she moved through her formal art education, Ottinger dabbled in other media, eventually earning an MFA in painting. But a 1994 scholarship to Burren College of Art in Ireland introduced her to an Irish quilter who provided bits of silk for her first art quilt. Her first love reawakened, Kristy became a fiber artist. Now, her exquisitely detailed narrative quilts show her artful, meticulous sewing skill, as well as demonstrating her talent for incorporating any mixed media that enhance the stories told by her pieces.