In my previous life I'd had a graphic design business for 13 years, but started quilting during rabbinical school. I'm self-taught in both--with all the hard lessons that entails--and usually make smaller quilts for the more-instant gratification. An unexpected benefit to my ADD-ness is that lap- and throw-size quilts make readily usable gifts, where a bed quilt might necessitate a whole room redo--landing in a closet to use "someday." ... Read Full Bio »
In my previous life I'd had a graphic design business for 13 years, but started quilting during rabbinical school. I'm self-taught in both--with all the hard lessons that entails--and usually make smaller quilts for the more-instant gratification. An unexpected benefit to my ADD-ness is that lap- and throw-size quilts make readily usable gifts, where a bed quilt might necessitate a whole room redo--landing in a closet to use "someday."
Before the graphic design business, I'd trained as a hospital chaplain in Minneapolis, and loved the work, though jobs there were scarce without ordination. So, self-taught, i started and ran a graphic design business for thirteen years before we could move to Philadelphia for rabbinical school. During the six years of fulltime study, I started quilting, even taking my little sewing machine to the hospital where I was in-house on-call every Thursday night. Heaven knows what the housekeeping staff thought of all the little threads in the carpet every Friday morning!
After rabbinical school I served a congregation in New York, about an hour from Montreal, for three years, and completed exactly one baby quilt during that whole time. (I did dabble in polymer clay, and gained all kinds of respect for people withthose skills!) Although i loved my congregation and (most of) the work, I missed chaplaincy and the Midwest and felt very blessed to find a position as staff chaplain in an excellent hospital within the Indiana University Health system.
Why "Thread Jazz"? Mainly because I've never followed a pattern--even one of my own--all the way through. There's always a "what if?" that takes me off in another direction, so with each quilt there's an element of surprise.
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