Hello, and welcome!
I’m Jen! It’s my 5 year quiltiversary so I decided to celebrate by creating my own site to showcase what I’ve done and where I’m going.
Growing up, my mother always sewed. She mostly made clothes for herself, me, and my dolls. She made my prom dresses, sorority formal dresses (seen below), and even my wedding dress(also below)…which was made with the lace detail from her own wedding dress.
As much as I was interested in sewing and had my won aesthetic that I asked my mom to produce, I was never able to execute clothing on my own to match my vision.
My mom’s sewing hobby started to shift to quilts at some point. She has made so many beautiful quilts for every member of our family. When I was pregnant I was very picky about the style and color of the first quilt my mom would make for my son. Don’t worry, she’s made him 3 others of her own aesthetic since.
The desire to create on my own never went away so in 2014 when a coworker/friend was pregnant, I thought I’d use her baby shower as a chance to try my hand at quilting. I asked my mom to help me with a pattern from a Modern Patchwork quilt book I bought her. I felt like I understood quilting more than I understood making clothes…or maybe quilting understood me. I’ve been hooked ever since.
My quilts so far have been made 80% of my mom’s leftovers and scraps. I LOVE working with scraps. There’s something about fully using something that really satisfies me. My mom loves to shop for fabric so we make a great pair. If I have a specific color in mind for a quilt, I always check with her before heading to the store. I love the challenge of making beautiful color combinations from what I have. And the feeling of having just enough of something to finish is pretty thrilling for me. The quilt top below is a prime example of this. I was even rummaging through my trash bin for fabric pieces big enough to sew together to complete.
In the photo you will also notice my archaic sewing machine that was handed down from my mom. It doesn’t do anything fancy, but it does everything I want it to. Several of my thread spools are hand-me-downs from my grandmothers as well.
So far I’ve mostly only made quilts as gifts for baby showers, and the occasional quilt to gift a friend just because. I’m hoping to someday have a supply of scrapped quilts to give to charities or sell. In the meantime I’m open to requests.