The Face of Quilting
Well, here is my contribution to Jen's concept!
Hi, my name is Schenley Pilgram. If you've ever been to Pittsburgh, you may be familiar with the name Schenley- there's a park and a drive and buildings and a high school. I grew up in a little town called Philipsburg, PA, which I joke is a suburb of State College, the home of Penn State University. I love reading, especially children's and young adult fiction; most of my favorite authors are British, interestingly. I love animals; I currently have a brother-sister pair of bunnies named Luke and Leia. My family loves listening to music and attending concerts - I've seen my all-time favorite band Jars of Clay more than 20 times. I'm an introvert, so my interests tend to be narrow and deep (and sometimes a little obsessive...) Some of my obsessions have included dinosaurs, Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles, rabbits, MINI Coopers, The Office, and Glee. Yeah, I've always been a tomboy! I double-majored in Psychology and Christian Thought at Grove City College. After college I worked as a nanny for a few families in PA and CT before moving back to Grove City and working as a TSS with children on the autism spectrum. After nearly 2 years I quit my job and moved back home, and it's good to be back! I've been taking photographs since I was a preschooler and I am currently building a photography business.
I'm 27 years old and I am a quilter.
You're getting the long version of how I became a quilter- I hope you don't mind ;-)
I grew up surrounded by quilts. Mostly Mom just likes buying old ones, but she has also made quite a few. I remember watching her sew a few log cabin quilts in our basement when I was four, with me wedged between the sewing table and the wall on the side, balanced on the narrow baseboard heater. Here's what my well-loved quilt looks like today:
She also made me the COOLEST Halloween costumes.
When I was little I learned crafts like latch-hook, counted cross-stitch, and friendship bracelets. But quilting has always scared me off, because of the precision involved in cutting and sewing the strips or pieces *just right* - I've always been a perfectionist! I thought it would frustrate me.
Anyway, it all really started for me in the fall of 2009. I was at a quilt shop with my best friend while her mother picked up her repaired sewing machine. I saw the heart-shaped yo-yo makers by Clover and though my mom would LOVE that, since she loves both hearts and yo-yos. Then I realized I could make her something, instead of just giving her the maker. I made something to match the quilt she made for her bed, as well as some garlands for friends.
Then my best friend said the circle yo-yos reminded her of hydrangeas, so I made her a pillow. I searched the internet and learned how to make piping out of bias strips and how to applique the leaves. I've always been a do-it-yourself troubleshooter, so it's no surprise I discovered the great resources available online.
Speaking of great online resources- at some point a few years ago I stumbled upon the free fandom patterns formerly hosted on sewhooked.org, now on Fandom in Stitches (I think I was doing a Legend of Zelda image search). I knew nothing of paper-piecing, just the traditional piecing my mom had done, and I couldn't believe how detailed the patterns were!
Around the same time I was starting that pillow project I made my first paper-pieced block; I didn't have a sewing machine in my apartment, and I had been doing all of that hand sewing with the yo-yos, so I hand stitched this Triforce block. I couldn't believe how nicely all of the points turned out.
Anyway, after making the hydrangea pillow, I needed a project idea for my other best friend (and roommate at the time). She had a Welsh Corgi, so I looked online for a pattern and couldn't find anything. So I made the leap from sewing that simple Triforce block to designing my own multi-segment pattern! Talk about jumping in with both feet. I couldn't have done it without the resources on Jen's website.
Then I got even more ambitious to make this gift for my favorite professor.
After that I started sewing the Harry Potter patterns on the site, as well as contributing my own. You can see more of my blocks and projects on flickr. My free patterns are available at Fandom in Stitches, and I have some animal patterns for sale on Etsy. And for those of you who read this long post, enter coupon code FACE20 to get 20% your purchase in my etsy shop!
I'm also one of the designers contributing to the Hobbit-themed block of the month quilt:
