Welcome

Hi, I am Shelley. Welcome to my blog, The Carpenter’s Daughter who quilts.

I was born and raised in small town Iowa. I grew up wanting to be everything from a veterinarian to a commercial artist or architect. My Dad suggested accounting. After a couple of years of college, I am still not sure what I want to be when I grow up. (I am now close to pushing 50.)  I was introduced to my now husband by a family member. We have been together almost 30 years. We eloped and got married in Las Vegas on what happened to be Friday, the 13th. I hope he thinks his gamble was worth it. I am mother to two kids and grandmother to two boys.

I grew up watching my Mother sew. She sewed clothes for me and my siblings. I had taken junior high school Home Economics and learned basic sewing. During and after high school. Mom taught me more sewing as I needed to custom fit my clothes since I was so skinny (which is no longer a problem). Over the years I made quite a few of my own kids’ clothes and items for nieces and nephews. I have quite a bit of sewing experience over the years, from making curtains for a restaurant franchise that my sister’s in-laws started, to sewing dolls, pillows, wall hangings and stitcheries for the wholesale market for an online craft store. I  have also learned factory industry sewing creating sports uniforms.

I taught myself to quilt over 20 years ago. I have created quilts for most of my family members. I have had the honor of creating quilts for charity for the Shriner’s Hospital and the Wounded Warrior Foundation. One of my greatest honors was creating a memorial quilt for a soldier killed in action in Afghanistan in 2007. In the last five years, I have become quite obsessed with quilting as I am sure my family can attest. It has not helped that I discovered Pinterest. There will never be enough time to create all the quilts I have liked and pinned.