Week #10: Quilter #10: Jeff Rutherford

Hi, I'm Jeff, and I'm taking over the 52 Quilters blog, Instagram and Twitter accounts this week. I'm 47. I live in Western Massachusetts. I'm the father of 2 boys (11 and 7 years old), and I've been quilting since 2002.

How did I get interested in quilting? In the late 1990s, I don't know the exact date, I was visiting Wave Hill, a park in the Bronx borough of NYC, on the shores of the Hudson River. I literally stumbled across an exhibit of modern quilts in a small art gallery on the grounds of Wave Hill. I had always wanted some type of visual arts hobby, but I had tried to draw and paint without a lot of success. I immediately thought, "I could try to make a quilt." Shortly after that day, I was on vacation in Vermont, and I remember buying several quilting magazines at a grocery store. I spent the vacation reading and re-reading those magazines and looking at the photos of the various quilts.

In 2002, I moved from NYC to Western Mass, outside of Northampton, MA. I bought a sewing machine, and I tried to teach myself how to quilt using Quilting For Dummies. But, I had problems even with a basic book. I had never used a sewing machine in my life, and I kept encountering terms such as quarter-inch seam allowance. I was confused. I soon took a quilting class at A Notion to Quilt, a quilt store in Shelburne Falls, MA. Before I even finished sewing my first quilt, I knew that I'd be making many more quilts in the years ahead, and I've done just that. Here's my first quilt, a log cabin. And, below is a recent New York Beauty Quilt that I finished.

Stay tuned for more blog posts this week. I'll be attending the QuiltGuy quilt retreat this weekend in Chester, VT, so I'll be sharing many photos from the retreat.

Post by Jeff - Week #10:   Jeff lives in Western Massachusetts with his two sons. He has been quilting since 2002. He mostly uses traditional patterns, but uses bold colours and has a growing interest in modern quilting. During his week he will be attending the QuiltGuy retreat. You can follow Jeff on instagram  @JeffRutherford