Welcome to Starflower Quilting Co!!

Thanks so much for dropping by to my little corner of the quilting world. To be honest, I never intended to create a blog, I am much too introverted to put myself out there. However, ...like many other many other firsts in recent years, I am stepping outside my comfort zone.

So, here it goes,

A little bit about me...

I have been quilting for almost 25 years (yikes!) and my journey started with hand quilting baby quilts for friends. I was introduce to quilting by both my mom and my stepmom who had made beautiful quilts for my first born son, Alec. At the time I enjoyed the process but felt a little out of my element when I saw the work of other amazingly talented quilters.

Nevertheless, I took a few classes at my local Quilt Shop, learned a few basic techniques and dreamed of owning a quilt store filled with pretty fabrics! Reality was,... quilting took a back seat to raising 2 boys and a puppy, working part time, and going back to school in order to start a new career in Health Services. I still quilted the odd project during this time, the boys each got a quilt for their rooms and my youngest, Matthew even helped to design his.

As the boys got bigger, the house got smaller,...figuratively, and my little sewing table seemed to have moved at least a dozen times before ending up in the back corner of the basement where it sat untouched for a few years. In the meantime, I used the dining room table for the few projects I did during that time. Eventually, I packed up my sewing table and bins of fabric and moved them to my mom's house and set up it up in her sewing room, yes she had an entire room, I was so envious!

About 6 1/2 years ago, my husband and I decided that we were ready to make a move and sold our little 1920s house that the kids grew up in (definitely a few tears shed the day we left) and purchase a larger 1960s side split, which lucky for me had dedicated space for sewing! YAY! Let the quilting begin.

I will be honest with you, my dedicated sewing space was (and still is) an unfinished basement that has a few large above grade windows which allow for some decent natural light, but I was happy to have a space that didn't require me to pack up at dinner time so we could use the dining room table. By this time I was fairly confident in my piecing skills (I could sew a pretty accurate 1/4inch seam allowance and about 90% of the time my seams matched up) and started designing my own quilts, nothing elaborate but I was open to letting my creative side take charge for once.

The boys were older now 13 and 18 so I had a little more "me time"or so I thought! We were now officially part of the "sandwich generation", with kids at home and aging in laws that needed a lot of help (subconsciously, I think I knew that quilting was a stress release for me). Then the world turned upside down with Covid and somehow during this period my mom and I purchased an APQS Lenni long arm machine. Now I was able to complete my own work from start to finish. Of course, there is a learning curve to all of it (like creating a website and starting a blog) but by October of 2023 I was ready to officially open Starflower Quilting Co. offering longarm quilting services to fellow quilters.

So, that is the short story of how we got here today. Where we go from here, I am not entirely sure but I do know that my goal is to try to silence the internal critic that prevents me from doing and trying new things; learn to enjoy each and every moment; embrace the challenges and learn from them; and hopefully make a few pretty things in between!

Thanks again for stopping by!

Jenn