Meet the Members–Jessica

1. Tell us about you 
I’m Jessica  and I’m a lifelong Chicagoan.  I grew up in River Forest and now live in Libertyville with my husband and almost-four-year-old son.  I was a seventh-grade teacher before he was born, but am now home with him full time.  

I can remember being interested in quilting in middle school–I had a learn-to-quilt book and bought fabric for a sampler quilt, but with no rotary cutter, things didn’t quite work out as planned!  I really learned to sew in high school, but took a decade-or-so hiatus, until I I stumbled upon the craft blog world after my son was born. 

I’ve been looking at quilts longer than I’ve been making them, and so have only completed a few quilts.

My first quilt was for a friend’s baby; I had another design in mind, but then she came three weeks early!

I made this quilt as an auction item for my son’s preschool, which names its classrooms for colors–so all the fabrics are either green, yellow, or blue.  They’re adding an orange room next year–not sure how that would’ve fit in!

This quilt was another charity donation, with a simple design where the Kaffe Fasset fabrics could speak for themselves.  I was the event chair, and so I didn’t have a ton of time!

4. What (if any) other crafty activities do you enjoy?

After my son was born, I learned to knit, and still enjoy that…I like a lot of other crafts in theory, but I have enough fabric and yarn to keep me busy for a lifetime without adding other supplies to the mix!  I do enjoy crafting to make something I need rather than buying it–I made some fabric-y magnets for a swap, and got to try pouring resin, which was fun.  Not something I want to turn into another hobby, but I do really just love the process of making things, so it was neat to do once.

5. What quilt or item you’ve made are you most proud of and why?

I think I’m most proud of that first baby quilt I made…mostly because it was the first time I’d executed the process I’d been reading so much about…I was so delighted to have actually made a quilt.  I also just love the colors–so cheery and perfect for a baby girl–and was pleased with how my attempt at mixing fabric lines turned out; I prefer the look of quilts that draw from lots of different designers, but am always a little nervous to combine lines myself.  I didn’t mix things up too much in this quilt, but what little I did worked pretty well, I think. 

6. Who inspires you most in your quilting?

Bloggers and “flickrers”, most definitely.  It’s kind of a double-edged sword, because I’m sometimes a little hard on myself about my own work when I start comparing it to the volume of awesome quilts I see online on blogs like Oh, Fransson and Film in the Fridge. I try to remind myself that in this season of my life, crafting is something I do in found bits of time.  Cranking out a quilt in a week just isn’t realistic for me right now!  That said, I really love getting a sneak peek at such high-quality work from people I’ve never met in person.  I have learned so much about design and color and just taking chances in my work from the blogs I read.

Check out Jessica’s blog here!