Meet Barbara Esposito, sewing friend of all the Jaftex companies. She shares projects often on Instagram and Facebook with our fabrics. In fact, one of our sales reps has been using Barbara's projects to show shops what great things you can make with our cute designs. For this month's challenge Barbara had "Hop To It!" collection designed by Shelly Comiskey, and ships into shops in November. Here is her story. Be sure to comment at the end and let her know how awesome her projects are, and how marvelous her photographer hubby is too!
Hello! My name is Barbara Esposito. You can find me on Instagram @thequiltedb.
This is Stitch and Snip and the day the fabric arrived for the Desire to Inspire challenge.
I live in Southwestern Connecticut with my
husband Joe (my camera guy, color consultant, and best friend), and my two
cats, Roscoe and T-bone. I love the fall
in New England – my absolute favorite time of year. When I am not sewing, you can find me baking
or biking with Joe. We love to ride to
the beach. When we take the “long way
around” we stop for ice cream – Joe calls that striving for equilibrium. We also love finding new Rails to Trails
routes around Connecticut and New England.
I have been quilting and sewing
for more than 15 years. I was not born
to sew!
My mother was a very
accomplished seamstress. I tried to
learn from her. Really, I did. But every time I went near her machine things
got all knotted up. No matter how hard I
tried. My last clear memory of an
attempt to sew with her machine went something like this:
Mom: Where
are you going with those pants?
Me: To your sewing room. They’re too long and I need to hem them.
Mom: Oh no you’re not! Just give them to me and NEVER step into my
sewing room again!
OK, maybe not quite so
melodramatic, but I was not of the sewing ilk.
Then in the mid 70’s
(yes, I am that old!) my sister Nancy asked me if I wanted to learn to
quilt. Remember that the rotary cutter
and quilting rulers were not available until 1979. Nancy did lot of hand piecing. And she used cardboard templates to cut up
her fabric. “Cut up the fabric and then
sew it back together again?? That’s a
bit insane, don’t you think?” I said.
Nancy rolled her eyes and never brought it up again.
Fast forward to early
2002 and a Pastor’s wife inviting me to join the ladies’ quilting group. I had some friends in that group. “I don’t want to cut up all those little
pieces and sew them back together again!” I said. “It’s easy.
There are fancy cutters and rulers that make it fast.” they said. “And we have snacks after sewing!” “Snacks??
OK it can’t be all bad” I thought.
I was hooked after my
first meeting. I will confess that it
took me over four hours in the fabric store to pick out my fabric. A friend with the patience of a saint was
with me and the only reason we left after 4 hours was because she had to pick
her kids up from school and threatened to leave me there. “Eight coordinating Fat Quarters” meant to me
that they all had to be the same color with no other colors mixed in. They could be different patterns, but only
blue and white could be in the fabric.
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I am happy to report that
things have changed and I have progressed.
Sometimes I even get all crazy and put stripes and polka dots in the
same quilt! Color is still my weak suit,
and I am thankful to have Joe and my sister Nancy to use as my color consultants. Sometimes I even drag my neighbor Lindsay
into the mess. I am of late, more apt to
look to fabric collections to save some myself angst. That is one reason I loved working with these
Hop To It fabrics. Henry Glass Co sent
them and said, “Here…create!” I knew the
fabrics belonged together. OK…I did
still need to check in with my color consultants about placement and whatnot, but
most of the color work was already figured out for me!
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I love to teach beginners
to sew and quilt. Corny as it sounds, I really
do have a Desire to Inspire. It is so
much fun to see a beginner’s reaction when they realize they can actually make
something with their own hands. They
come to the sewing table with no pre-conceived notions about can and
can’t. They trust that you will show
them and that they will do it. Teaching
beginners is one reason I love simple quilt patterns. Don’t get me wrong. There is a place in my repertoire for
complicated. I love to foundation paper
piece. I am addicted to English Paper
Piecing. I just pattern tested a quilt
pattern for a designer that almost killed me because I decided to make it scrappy, but I loved the challenge. Sometimes, though, simple is good. Like when you have FOUR baby quilts due for December
babies! Yes, that’s December 2017. Simple can be a good opportunity to play with
pattern or color.
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The pattern I used for
this challenge quilt is a freebie from Wood Valley Designs
(
woodvalleydesigns.com). It is called,
simply, “Picture Frame” and is one of their “Three Yard Pattern” designs. With the simple patterns, beginners get a
real sense of accomplishment and are not afraid to move on to more complex
things.
So often I see quilters
who compare their work to what they see on the latest blog, or You Tube channel
and are discouraged because their project isn’t “perfect”. “Look!
My seams don’t match up!” “I
can’t quilt it like she did!” or worse, “I’m afraid to try that _______ (new
technique, pattern, style – insert what scares you) because I can’t do it as
well as her or him.” Let it be known
that I am making it my personal mission to dispel the myth that only perfect is
good! I would love to share a crazy
little story with you if you can hang on a minute or two longer.
My sister Nancy was
having a conversation with a woman with whom she works. They were talking about me (crazy, right?)
and Nancy mentioned that we quilt together (she’s a good sister – she forgave
my teenage snub from back in the 70’s).
It came up in conversation that I lived on Block Island in RI when I was
younger and have a friend who owns several shops on the Island. She told her co-worker that I had sold some
quilts in my friend’s shop over the years.
Here is the crazy part: Her
co-worker has a 12 year old daughter.
The daughter received a quilt from a relative when she was born. The quilt was purchased on Block Island in
Rhode Island. Can you see where this is
going?
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My sister asked for a
picture of the quilt. As she was telling
me this story she said, “I don’t think it’s one of your quilts. It is not your style at all.” She showed me the picture, and can you
guess? It was one of my quilts. At
first I wanted to say, “Nope…you’re right…it’s not one of mine!” It was not exactly one of my finest let me
tell you! But then it hit me. Someone
thought my quilt was beautiful enough
to buy for a new baby. Someone was
grateful for the friend who bought that quilt.
And someone loved it enough to keep it on her bed for twelve years!
Here’s the point: Sew what you love from a heart of love, and
love what you sew. Finished and
cherished is so much better than perfect.
Seriously. It is.
In closing, I would like
to tell you all that I consider myself blessed to be offered this
Challenge. It is an honor to be allowed
to share with you and I thank Henry Glass Co for this opportunity!
Now Hop To It and go sew up
some love! And be sure to tag me
@thequiltedb because I really would love to see what you create!
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| Barbara Esposito |
