About

“Hi.  My name is Jennifer and I am a quilter.”

As far as introductions go, that isn’t much.  But it describes one major part of my life – quilting.  There are two others: my family and my business.  A few miscellaneous other things round me out, but those three are the biggies. 

The first part of my life, and most important, is my family.  My husband and I met at a New Years/birthday party of a mutual friend when I was 14.  After trouncing the boys at Trivia Pursuit, I did not hear from Jeff after that for four months.  One day, out of the blue, I get a letter from him and by this time I had totally forgotten who he was.  But I guess that must have been one heck of a Trivia Pursuit game ’cause he remembered me.  After a few double dates, we started dating and have never looked back.

After high school graduation, I attended the University of Maine at Orono on a full academic scholarship.  But to pay the bills, I still worked 25-35 hours a week at a really cool store, The Grasshopper Shop.  If you are ever in Ellsworth, Maine, you have got to stop by and tell Ken I said “hi”.  I was their music department manager and loved the folk and Celtic music I got to buy for the store.

Just before my senior year of college, Jeff and I got married.  Then, once I graduated from UMO with my BS in Business Administration, I decided to attend culinary school at the New England Culinary Institute (NECI).  I had thoughts of owning an inn or restaurant/bakery some day.  So we packed our bags and headed out to Vermont.  I had a lot of fun in the culinary program, but quickly learned it was not for me: long and even longer hours, back pain and knee pain, no family life, and terrible pay.  So much for that $22,000 year of tuition!

In 2001, my mother passed away and that was really difficult for me to deal with.  I am still struggling with it at times.  My father quickly re-married, and has a new family.  My mother’s sister, my Auntie Boo-boo, has been very helpful to me, oftentimes acting as my surrogate mother. 

I became a mother in 2002 when Jeff and I had our first son, Gryphon (pronounced Griffin).  I quit my job as a Product Specialist for National Life and focused on becoming a full time mom.  Then, in 2004, we had our second son, Gabriel.  By 2006, I had been working off and on part-time and really wanted to stay at home to spend more time with my family.  I was really unsatisfied with the part-time work available and knew that I had much more to offer.

 And that is when Baby’s Breath Quilts was born!