I quilt whenever I can, which thankfully means several times a week if not every day. I love scrap quilts, improv, English paper piecing, free pieced letters and using what I have. I'm happy to answer any questions about my techniques or materials and if I don't list a source for a pattern or design, it's probably my own.
I sew and quilt on a Janome MemoryCraft 6500. I love Clover notions and Gutterman thread. I use a metal thimble with an open top for piecing/applique and a closed-topped, ridged thimble for hand quilting. If I've got enough $ to send something out, I usually send it to Shannon Couvillion.
My backstory: I started quilting in 1994, playing with my great grandmother's scraps and piecing by hand. Though I learned basic sewing skills from both my grandmothers, I was on my own when it came to quilting. In high school and college I poured over every quilt book at the library and thought I knew what I was doing. Haha. In 2002, while living in northern Japan, I had my first quilting mentor, and I learned everything all over again. Thanks to some really wonderful guilds and the online quilting community, I've grown into a pretty hardcore quilter. An original member of the NYC Metro Modern Guild, I like to write books on quilt techniques, give lectures and workshops and I currently run a bi-weekly quilt discussion group at the Rockville Centre Public Library (see the Events tab for more info).
If you want to go back and read my early years of quilt blogging (2006-2010), check out Littleshika.
Contact info:
Blog comments are always welcome, but sometimes emails do the job better (and are easier to reply to!).
jessunderquilts (at) gmail (dot) com
If you need my mailing address for swaps/trades/bees, lmk and I'll email it to you.
