Jennifer Emry won $1,000 for Blue Window from Sponsor, Wonderfil Specialty Threads at Road to California 2020.
Meet Jennifer Emry
A resident of Arlington Virginia, Jennifer Emry likes to explore the possibilities of turning old quilts into new designs.
Jennifer became a quilter by first, collecting antique and early 20th Century quilt tops during the 1990’s. She fell in love with the fabrics. Not too long after, a quilter friend showed Jennifer how to hand quilt. Jennifer began hand quilting on some of the early tops in her collection. It wasn’t long after that she was “off on the journey.” Along the way, Jennifer said she learned how to turn old quilts into new designs by repairing damaged quilts, straighten crooked work that did not lie flat, and creating what seemed to her, good designs.
Jennifer has won many awards for turning old quilts into new designs. The first show she entered was the 2011 AQS Lancaster Show. That same year, two of her quilts were entered and accepted into AQS Paducah Show. The first prize Jennifer ever won was in 2012 at AQS Grand Rapid. She received first place in the category, Hand Quilted Wall quilts.
The Journey for Blue Window
Jennifer describes her winning Judge’s Choice Quilt at Road 2020, a color and value study using blue fabrics in squares.
Blue Window was started in December 2018. The quilting was finished in April 2019. Jennifer says that she learned that “inspiration comes from working, not from waiting for inspiration.” Experiencing an artistic block, Jennifer started working with squares of fabric in a square-in-square pattern just to keep sewing. She says she “loved the calm, simple design.” Jennifer used “black and white photos to adjust the arrangement of the squares until the values were the way I wanted them.”
Winning Entries
Jennifer Emry actually won 2 awards at Road 2020. She first found out that she had received second-place in the category, Modern Abstract, for her quilt, Brush Strokes. She received $750 from Sponsor, Quilters Dream Batting, for this entry.
She didn’t hear about the Judges Award (given by John Flynn) until a few days later because the email announcing her selection, went straight to her junk folder.
What is Jennifer going to do with her winnings from Road 2020? “I’m banking it until the perfect antique ukulele comes along.”
Thank you, Jennifer Emry, for sharing with the fiber art world how to turn old quilts into new designs.
