CRAFTER SPOTLIGHT:
SERENSTITCHES
Serena (don't you just love her name) and I are on the Quiltsy Team together at etsy.com. I admire her detailed piecing, and the beautiful rich colors of her work. Come with me to feast your eyes on this artist's wonderful collection of quilts; you may even spot a celebrity along the way!
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| West Virginia Twilight |
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| Pansy Delight |
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From Serena's Etsy Profile:
I am a West Virginia quilter and am proud of the family tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. I have been making quilts for thirty years and I have quilted professionally with a great group of cooperative quilters for the past thirteen. I love making new designs and finding clever ways to enhance old traditional patterns.I have been awarded various ribbons for competitions on local,state and national levels for my skills and designs.I never tire of the endless possibilities with each new quilt.
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| Country Roads |
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| Custom Order |
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| Designer Blue Bag |
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A Little About Serena:
I started quilting when I was pregnant with my first child. I helped my mother in law set up a quilt she had made from her aunts left over dress pieces. I know now it was a simple nine patch quilt, but the stories she told as she touch each piece of fabric, touched me in a way I would never forget. She bought me my 1st sewing machine for Xmas that year and I have been sewing ever since. Fabric scraps from making my family clothes were then saved for utility quilts. The public library opened a whole new world of quilting to me, patterns, and techniques. I loved the old traditional patterns best, but the hand quilting was my favorite part and still is. When a quilting class was offered to make and sell quilts I went and that's how I got started with the co-op. I was juried into Cabin Creek quilts, then later into Mountainmade another WV enterprise and last Mountain Artisans which is exclusively WV crafters.
The 1st picture is a wall hanging I designed and made called Pansy Delight that was accepted into the National Quilting Association in Columbus, OH show in 2005.
From that design I created a bigger quilt for a contest, which I called West Virginia Twilight. It did not place in the contest but it sure went places! I entered it into the 1st online quilt contest with AQS because I promised my daughter I would enter one in an AQS contest---this one was easy, no jurying! again, it did not place. When the WV Quilters bi-annual quilt show and competition came around ( of which I'm a member ) I entered it there. It took the Judges Merit Award for original design--- I was thrilled! The day I got it back from that show I was asked to display my quilt and the award at a local Heritage festival, so I did. The Friends of the Arts saw my quilt on display as they were purchasing quilts from local quiltmakers to present to celebrities they had lined up for concerts in our small town . When they bought my quilt I was thrilled, when I was asked to present it to Loretta Lynn I was speechless!
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| Close Up of West Virginia Twilight |
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| Loretta Lynn Accepting Serena's Quilt |
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| This one I called Laurel Creek Stars, it took an honorable mention last year at the WV division of Culture and history Quilts and wall hanging exhibit |
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A mini interview with Serena follows:
What do you enjoy most about quilting?
I love to design and experiment with old patterns, but quilting out the piece is my favorite part.
Hand quilting has always seemed to come natural to me, and after four years of making baby quilts
for Project Linus, I finally felt comfortable quilting on my machine. Most of my quilts are machine
quilted now but are designed to look like hand quilting. I just enjoy the process of creating from
start to finish and feel blessed I’m able to share this with others.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years with your craft?
I hope to be designing new quilt patterns, perhaps teaching but always quilting!
Besides quilting what other things do you like to do?
Spending time with my family, especially the grandbabies and working in my flower beds. I enjoy
making applebutter in the fall from our own apple trees, canning it and sharing it with our children.
Tell us about your family ...
I’ve been blessed , married to my childhood sweetheart going on 38 years now and three
wonderful children who make me proud to say I’m there mom, but my grandchildren are the
icing on the cake.
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| Lighthouse, took 2nd place at the Mountain State Arts and Craft Fair in wall hangings 2005. |
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I've always had a hard time expressing myself with words, guess that's why I pour myself into my quilting. My workspace is just a spare bedroom I share with my husbands hobby of genealogy, nothing fancy but my closets are full of fabric like most quilters.
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| My workspace as I was working on WV Twilight. |
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I hope you have enjoyed getting to know a little about Serena and her quilts as much as I have.
You can purchase her quilts and see more of her work in her etsy shop:
serenstitches.etsy.com
One last quilt...Serena tells me that the NQA (short for National Quilting Association) emailed her this evening to tell her they have accepted her Oriental Fans into the show for this summer June 19-21!
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| Japanese Floral |
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