A Quilting Jewel

59” x 59”

Completed: March 2024

Materials: Assorted quilting prints and solids, pieced with Aurifil 50wt, quilted with Superior Threads So Fine! 50wt and 40wt metallic, Quilters Dream Cotton Select batting

In an effort to be more sustainable in my quilting practice, I sewed up about a yard of “made fabric” from scraps cut from another quilt, my Sidewalk Shuffle quilt. It wasn’t until I made a double wedding ring quilt from Tara Faughnan’s QuiltCon 2022 class that I decided to use this made fabric for another double wedding ring quilt, but instead of piecing the rings, I’d use this made fabric. I complemented the made fabric with coordinating solids and played with color and value to create the end piece you see here. The quilt is finished with four different threads to add to the scrappy feel of the quilt.

26” x 25”

Completed October 2023

Techniques: Machine Pieced, Domestic Machine Quilted

Materials: Assorted Kona and Cotton Couture Solids, Aurifil 50wt threads

Famed poet Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” ponders the end of the world. I often wonder what Frost would think about the current events of today and how he might rewrite his often-quoted poem with the threat of climate change, discrimination, war, and even social media. I made this quilt using all scraps from another quilt to reduce waste, something I’ve become more mindful of the more I quilt and purchase fabric for a new quilt. It was entirely improv pieced, even the background, from trimmings from another quilt. I wasn’t sure where I would take this when I started outside of trying to create a slight light to dark from the center of the eventual triangles and let the fabric dictate the final piece.

Juried: Quiltcon 2024 Small Quilts

47” x 47”

Completed: October 2023

Materials: Assorted quilting cottons, Quilters Dream Cotton Select Batting, Aurifil 50wt for piecing and quilting

Machine pieced and quilted on a domestic sewing machine.

Taking Tara Faughnan’s Double Wedding Ring class at QuiltCon 2022 inspired me to make this quilt. I don’t make scrappy quilts normally, so it was a practice in playing with colors, value, scraps, and my patience. As a single, divorced woman, making a double wedding ring quilt was difficult at times given the historical nature of the traditional pattern. So I decided to channel my strong, fierce, independent woman within and dubbed this my Single Girl Summer quilt. I made it bright and cheery with light radiating from the center to symbolize the feelings I wanted to emit and create.

49” x 59”

Completed: October 2023

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, Quilters Dream Select Solids, Pieced with Aurifil 50wt, Quilted with various So Fine! 50wt and Aurifil 50wt threads

While visiting Machu Picchu in 2015 to celebrate graduating with my MBA, I intentionally photographed the famed landmark with a different lens to gain inspiration for quilts. I took this one shot of the village where the Incas would live and sleep that stuck with me. From this image of these homes, I took the triangles and squares from the shot and sketched a long shape of designs. I then rotated a version of that sketch three times around a center point to create this final design. Once I had my rough sketch, I transferred the design to freezer paper using the sketch as a rough guide and pieced the quilt.

50” x 50”

Completed: October 2023

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, Quilters Dream Cotton Select Batting, Pieced with Aurifil #50, Quilted with Superior Threads So Fine! 50wt

Back in 2015 I started a journey of experimenting with flying geese in modern quilts, either modifying them within a quilt or using them to create a unique layout. In 2017 I designed this quilt as a way to incorporate more negative space and simplistic shapes with a basic color palette. Mid way through piecing the top, I moved. After sitting packed up for years, I finally pulled this out of the box and began questioning the original design. It turns out the original design stood the test of time and felt even more fitting as a symbol of our political climate as we became a more divided country, moving further away from centrist beliefs and to many extremes. The stark contrast in fabrics and minimal palette resonated even more to me as I completed this top in 2023.

32” x 32”

Completed: January 2023

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, Kona Cotton Solids, Quilters Dream Cotton Select, Aurifil 50wt for piecing and Superior Threads 50wt for quilting

I sketched out the idea for this quilt in a notebook during a work meeting when I was craving the beach. When organizing my stash one week, I realized I had WAY too many blue solids, so I got to work pulling from my stash and experimented with the placement of the strips. Living near the beach, I find a lot of peace when I’m at the ocean, so this quilt became a little bit of warmth and happiness during a cold winter month of sewing. I matchstick quilted this top using nine different thread colors to compliment the top and blend the different strips together.

48” x 48”

Completed: October 2022

Materials: Windham Solids (QuiltCon 2023 fabric challenge palette), Pieced with Aurifil 50wt, Quilted with Superior Threads So Fine #50 and Superior Threads Metallic, Quilters Dream Select Cotton

Working in the IT industry, I’m constantly surrounded by images of technology. While designing this block, I was playing around with some flying geese shapes only to discover that the design resembled a circuit board. Or at least that’s immediately where my mind went as I continued to iterate on the block and the idea of a circuit board overtook the geese as the primary focus. The pattern remained just an idea until the QuiltCon Fabric Challenge was announced for QuiltCon 2023 and I knew that the fabrics chosen would make for a great color palette for this quilt.

Featured in QuiltCon Magazine 2023

Juried into QuiltCon 2023

Second Place Full Sized Mid-Century Mod/Modern, QuiltFest Greenville 2023

First Place Wall Quilts - Modern, AQS QuiltWeek Grand Rapids 2023

48” x 48”

Completed: July 2022

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, Quilters Dream Cotton Select, Aurifil 50wt for piecing and Superior Threads 50wt for quilting

I sketched this quilt out and even picked the fabrics for it back in 2018, but it sat in a bin as I moved twice as a simple idea. When we had our first retreat in three years as a guild in 2022, I grabbed the bin this was sitting in and set out to get to work on it finally. As a foundation paper piecer mostly, the improv nature of piecing these strips was at times freeing and oftentimes frustrating. I had to let go of my desire to have order and structure and embrace ambiguity.

Juried into QuiltCon 2023

Designed, Pieced and Quilted by Jen Sorenson

Completed June 2022 (Started in 2017)

36” x 42”

Techniques: Foundation Paper Pieced, Longarm Quilted

Materials: Kona Cotton (front), Art Gallery (back) fabrics, Pieced: Aurifil 50wt, Quilted: Superior Threads So Fine! 50wt, Batting: Quilters Dream Cotton Select

When the Kona 2017 color of the year came out, I was intrigued by the unique pink of this Pink Flamingo color. Around the same time I had been playing with some unique hexagon designs and ways to take the hexagon shape and manipulate it with negative space to create an interesting design. I decided to combine the two and created this design. It sat unquilted for nearly 5 years until I decided to just load the quilt on my longarm frame and see what came to me.

Designed, Pieced and Quilted by Jen Sorenson

Completed May 2022

40” x 40”

Techniques: Foundation Paper Pieced, Longarm Quilted

Materials: Assorted quilting cottons (solids and prints), metallic linen

When traveling one year, I came across a crosswalk that had some triangles painted next to the dashed crosswalk lines and was surprisingly moved by the simple change in an everyday pattern. It stuck with me in my mind and one day as I was doodling, the shapes stuck with me and this design was born. I pulled a ton of fabrics from my stash and decided to let the fabrics tell the story and piece the top with minimal planning outside of where the navy and cream fabrics went. The freedom to not have all the control over the quilt was therapeutic after the control the pandemic held over our lives for so long.

Second Place, Mid-Century Modern Category, Quiltfest Greenville 2022

Designed and Quilted by Jen Sorenson

Pieced by Karen Leavitt

Completed October 2021

52” x 60”

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, Assorted quilting cotton prints, Quilters Dream Cotton Select Batting, Pieced with Aurifil #50, Quilted with Superior Threads So Fine 50wt

As I experimented with unique paper pieced blocks, a portion of one I was designing stood out to me as a bird formation. Combined with my obsession with flying geese, this quilt was bord. It was a personal challenge to myself to use some fabric colors I don’t usually gravitate toward as well as creating a more minimalistic design. It hung out unquilted for a while until I went on a binge of finishing quilts in 2021, as it was pieced likely in the 2013-2014 timeframe. I matchstick quilted the background to make the blocks pop and minimally quilted the blocks to add dimensions.

Designed, Pieced and Quilted by Jen Sorenson

Completed August 2021

72” x 96”

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, Quilters Dream Cotton Select Batting, Pieced with Aurifil 50wt, Quilted with Superior Threads So Fine 50wt

As I looked for ways to modify and modernize a traditional block, the Jacob's Ladder block resonated with me in many ways. While designing making this quilt I was faced with a number of challenges at work and it started to represent the challenges I and many other women face in the corporate world being female. This quilt became therapeutic yet poetic because very few blocks are at the top of the quilt and there are many rotated and missing blocks, representative of the many challenges we face in business as women. The machine quilting is also a traditional motif, the orange peel, yet is also broken and out of order at times to compliment the modern traditional feel of the quilt.

Designed, Pieced and Quilted by Jen Sorenson

Completed: July 2021

50” x 50”

Materials: Assorted Kona Cottons

Another quilt in my flying geese series, this quilt showcases my experiment in paper piecing Y-seams. I had a different layout in mind when I designed the flying geese blocks, but when I put several other designs out on Instagram many followers agreed with my gut - to abandon my original plan and go with the final design. I matchstick quilted this quilt in quadrants following the direction of the geese to blend the reds together and create a cohesive look across the quilt.

Designed Pieced and Quilted by Jen Sorenson

Completed March 2021

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids

46” x 50”

I designed the block used in this quilt for one of The Modern Quilt Guild’s block of the month in 2017. I was inspired by a number of aviation designs when flying for work one day and created the block. This arrangement was one of many I designed but ultimately settled on with its combination of negative space and the block itself. The neon green binding is the icing on the cake with this quilt and might be my favorite part.

Designed, Pieced and Quilted by Jen Sorenson

Completed February 2021

77” x 49”

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids

The largest quilt in my flying geese series, this paper pieced quilt was designed vertically, but it wasn’t until I was piecing the top and had to lay it across my design wall horizontally that I knew that was the orientation this quilt needed to take. I made it during a time of self-reflection, so it felt poetic and as if it was talking to me to look at many things in my life with a different perspective.

This quilt is paper pieced and matchstick quilted on my longarm. I used different threads for the blue, tan and teal to emphasize those colors in the design. The binding uses opposite background colors for a little pop.

Designed, Pieced and Quilted by Jen Sorenson

Completed February 2021 (Begun in 2014)

65” x 50”

Materials: Assorted Liberty of London Lawn Fabrics, Andover Textured Solids and Chambray.

I designed this quilt back in 2014 as a way to highlight some beloved Liberty of London fabrics I was collecting. I wanted to play with combining textures and made this quilt as a result. The top remained unquilted for years as longarmers refused to tackle the different textures. I had a vision of how I wanted to quilt it but didn’t have the quilting skills at the time. Several years later I worked up the courage to quilt it myself and love the outcome.

52” x 72”

Completed: May 2020

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, Aurifil Thread for piecing, Superior Threads So Fine! for quilting, Quilters Dream Select Cotton Batting

Designed and pieced in 2016, this quilt was finished in early 2020 while embracing social distancing. This was designed to emphasize the geometric feel balanced with negative space for a simplistic and dynamic quilt. It remained unquilted for a while while I tried to decide how to quilt it, but ultimately settled for one of my favorite quilting motifs, matchstick quilting.

Best Interpretation of Mid-Century Theme: Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza, September 16-19, 2021

36” x 36”

Completed: 2020

Fabrics: Kona Cotton

Thread: Aurifil 50wt

After designing 24+ kaleidoscope blocks for a block of the month I designed, I decided to take one of my favorite blocks and repeat it using the Kona Color of the Year from 2016, Highlight, along with a couple of other solids. I wanted to emphasize the many secondary designs with the color placement and decided to play off one of them with the quilting. Originally I had planned on just one large concentric circle, but mid-quilting I decided to change things up and add more.

34” x 35”

Completed: September 2019

Materials: Kona Cotton, Aurifil Thread, Quilters Dream Select Cotton Batting

The Boston Modern Quilt Guild issues a mini quilt challenge every year. This year the theme was “scrap quilt”. With my scraps in storage while I was between homes, I turned to a fabric bundle from Sewtopia’s first season of the Color Collective with over a dozen beautiful solids. I wanted a linear, organized chaos feel to this quilt to show harmony between scrappy and planned. The precision piecing is meant to compliment the many fabrics used to seem both organized and a bit whimsical.

39” x 39”

Completed: September 2019

Materials: Cotton Couture Solids, Various Prints

This is the fifth quilt in my flying geese series in which I alter the flying geese design in some way and use them in a unique layout. In each quilt I challenge myself in a new way. In this case, I paired some of my traditional jewel tones that I love to work with along a brown that I would never think to use normally. The result is a quilt I love. I challenged myself with the matchstick quilting as well, alternating directions in different sections of the quilt to compliment the design. The one geese that isn’t quilted has found a way to stand out, because there’s always a way!

Third Place, Mid-Century Mod/Modern Quilt Competition, Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza, September 16-19, 2021

42” x 42”

Completed: 2018

Materials: Michael Miller Hashdot and Cotton Couture

I designed this quilt after being inspired by a blue and white tile. When the Michael Miller Fabric Challenge for QuiltCon 2019 was launched, I redid the design in the fabric colors and made this quilt.

QuiltCon 2019: Juried

22” x 20”

Completed: 2017

Fabrics: Cotton, Shot Cotton and Linen

I designed this mini paper pieced quilt for the 2017 MQG Mini Quilt Swap. I loved the design so much that I made three versions, one for my swap partner and two for me in two different styles. The navy one uses three types of fabric types while the others use quilting cottons. All were machine quilted on my domestic machine.

51” x 51”

Completed: 2017

Materials: Linen and Cotton Couture Solids

I designed this paper pieced quilt while playing with simplicity and scale. When it came time to piece it, I wanted to play with different textures, hence the linen and quilting cottons. I machine quilted it on my domestic.

QuiltCon 2018: Juried

Best of QuiltCon 2018 Traveling Exhibit

45” x 41”

Completed: 2017

Materials: Assorted quilting cottons

Another quilt in my flying geese series, I designed this to play with scale and color value. I paper pieced this quilt and machine quilted it on my domestic.

33” x 30”

Completed: 2017

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids and Assorted White Prints

One of the quilts in my Flying Geese Series, this quilt and the others in my series are about looking at ways to manipulate a flying geese block and then have it complement a quilt design. This modified version felt aerodynamic to me and in turn felt like a flock of geese migrating for the winter. This paper pieced quilt was pieced and machine quilted on my domestic sewing machine.

26” x 33”

Completed: 2017

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids

I designed this quilt when playing with alternate shapes beyond squares, triangles and rectangles and while experimenting with scale. The colors and the shape were inspired by the sunsets over the granite mountains I was oh so familiar with growing up in New Hampshire, The Granite State. Featured on the cover of Modern Patchwork in 2018, this paper pieced quilt was pieced and quilted on my domestic sewing machine.

34” x 34”

Completed: 2017

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture and Violet Craft fabrics

I designed this geometric floral quilt block and just pulled a fat quarter bundle from my stash that I had received for Christmas one year. I made a handful of blocks and started playing around with the layout and settled on the design found here. This quilt was featured in Quilty Magazine (under their name, “Five Alive"). Machine pieced and quilted on my domestic sewing machine.

53” x 41”

Completed: 2017

Materials: Linen and Michael Miller Cotton Couture

I designed this paper pieced quilt when playing with scale and shrinking/growing a block in just one direction. This quilt was another example of how I enjoy working with different textured fabrics in a single quilt. This was machine pieced on my domestic and quilted on my longarm.

34” x 44”

Completed: 2017

Materials: Shot Cotton

I designed this quilt when playing with asymmetry and trying to push myself to use more mustard yellow. I tend to stick to jewel tones over earth tones, so it was a personal challenge. I paper pieced this quilt and longarm matchstick quilted it to enhance the design.

25” x 30”
Finished: 2017

Materials: Assorted quilting cottons and batiks

The Boston Modern Quilt Guild hosts a mini quilt challenge every year, and the theme for both the year for the guild and the challenge was improve in 2017. We had to make a mini quilt no more than 36” square. I sat on the challenge for a while, uninspired. Eventually, at our guild retreat, I pulled out a fat quarter bundle my sister gave me for Christmas that year and just started cutting and sewing with no end goal in mind. This quilt is the result. I call it “Stumped” because I was both stumped on what to make and I find the end result resembles a tree stump. Machine pieced and quilted on my domestic sewing machine.

35” x 48”

Completed: 2016

Materials: Michael Miller Luxe

Made for the 2017 Michael Miller QuiltCon Fabric Challenge, I designed and made this paper pieced quilt to showcase the Luxe fabric. I originally designed this quilt using different colors, but when I realized the design would be enhanced by fussy cutting the fabric, I had to make this pattern. I quilted this on my longarm by laying the quilt down at an angle and quilted lines 1” and 1/4” apart, repeating that process.

Juried into QuiltCon 2017

Curated into the New England Quilt Museum Modern Quilting Exhibit, 2021

67” x 62”

Completed: 2016

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture

I designed this paper pieced quilt when playing around with different geometric shapes and negative space. I just start sketching lines on paper and see what shows up. I loved what happened when doodling here and decided to use some of my favorite colors, jewel tones, in this quilt. I longarm quilted the strands and did the extended straight line quilting on my domestic.

36” x 36”

Completed: 2016

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids

I was inspired to revisit my original inspiration for my Dazzling Diamonds quilt and wanted to remix things a bit. I simplified the design and tweaked it. The result is this simple yet graphic paper pieced quilt with lots of movement. This quilt was machine pieced and quilted on my domestic sewing machine.

72” x 42”

Completed: 2017

Materials: Assorted quilting cottons

In 2016 I launched a Kaleidoscope Block of the Month, publishing two blocks a month for 12 months. This quilt is the result of those blocks.

Every Which Way

50” x 50”

Finished: 2015

Fabric: Michael Miller Glitz and Cotton Couture

The first quilt in my Flying Geese Series, this quilt was made for the Michael Miller Challenge at QuiltCon 2016. I made the paper pieced geese with the challenge fabric and coordinating Michael Miller Cotton Couture fabric prior to deciding on a layout. Once pieced, I densely matchstick quilted this on my longarm.

Awards/Shows:

QuiltCon: Juried

AQS Grand Rapids: Honorable Mention

Curated into the New England Quilt Museum Modern Quilt Exhibit, 2021

30” x 30”

Completed: 2015

Fabrics: Michael Miller Cotton Couture

I designed this quilt block for the Michael Miller/Janome 100 Quilt Block Project. The fabrics were provided by Michael Miller and were a nice stretch outside of my usual comfort zone. But I loved the block I created enough to make four blocks and turn this into a quilt.

QuiltCon 2016: Juried

50” x 60”

Completed: 2016

Fabrics: Northcott solids and prints

Northcott Fabric was looking for a few quilts to showcase in their booth at QuiltCon 2016. I designed this quilt in smaller form to be a baby quilt for my soon-to-be-born Goddaughter and enlarged it for this quilt. The colors were inspired by a box of printer ink sitting on my desk. I paper pieced the strip blocks and quilted it on my longarm to resemble butterfly’s flying in the wind.

Filled With Love

72” x 72”

Completed 2016

Materials: Assorted Cotton Solids

This quilt took two years to complete. I designed the paper pieced block and originally posted it as part of the Boston Modern Quilt Guild Block of the Month. I designed this quilt using the block as a way to play with color and value. It was machine quilted on my longarm and required numerous thread changes to ensure the color was front and center and the thread didn’t contrast with the fabric.

Confetti

51” x 50”

Completed: 2014

Materials: Assorted Solid Fabrics

Created through the Simply Solids Bee on Flickr, I sent around the blue, green and pink fabrics to my bee mates and asked them to make some improv blocks. After receiving the blocks back, I sat on them for a while before realizing I could cut up the blocks to fit the design I had in my mind. Once I had the top assembled, I machine quilted it on my longarm.

Shows:
QuiltCon 2015: Juried

36” x 6”

Completed: 2014

Materials: Michael Miller Cotton Couture

This is one of the quilts in my Secondary Design Series and was featured in Modern Quilts Unlimited. This quilt was inspired by a garden trellis, hence the name. It was quilted on my longarm to enhance the design.

Pinwheel Party

18” x 18”

Completed: 2013

Materials: Assorted cotton fabrics

Another quilt in my Secondary Design Series, this quilt was made for the Modern She Made Swap that was organized on Flicker in 2013.

84” x 60”

Completed: 2013

Materials: Assorted Quilting Cottons

I designed this quilt when looking for a simple pinwheel design with a secondary design focus to go with my series. It was featured in Quilty Magazine in 2014. This quilt was paper pieced on my domestic sewing machine and quilted by Angela Walters.

35” x 35”

Completed: 2014

Materials: Riley Blake Fabrics

I designed this quilt and was sitting on it for a while until the MQG issued the Riley Blake Fabric Challenge for 2014. I was stumped with the fabric, as it was out of my comfort zone, but once I tried it with this design, I knew it was the right fit. This was quilted on my domestic with wavy lines to feel like the pinwheels were moving in the wind.

36” x 36”

Completed: 2013

Materials: Assorted Quilting Cottons

As a finalist in the 2013 Sewvivor competition, I was challenged to create something sewn with the Pantone color of the year, Emerald. I picked up some fabrics at my local quilt store and went off to my guilds retreat. I had designed this quilt when playing with tweaking a kaleidoscope block and decided to dive in. I started cutting this quilt at 9am one day of our retreat and put the final stitch on the binding less than 24 hours later. Machine paper pieced and quilted on my domestic sewing machine.

60” x 48”

Completed: 2013

Fabrics: Assorted Quilting Cottons

I designed this quilt after being approached by American Quilter Magazine to submit a pattern to the publication. I had been experimenting with secondary designs and loved the way the quilt created diamonds, circles and stars or flowers when pieced together depending on how you looked at it. The quilt was featured in the January 2014 issue of American Quilter. It was paper pieced on my domestic sewing machine and longarm quilted by Angela Walters.

Framed Up

48” x 48”

Finished: 2013

Materials: Assorted cotton prints

This quilt was the second quilt in my Secondary Design series of quilts. Featured in McCall’s Quilting January/February 2014 issue, this quilt was paper pieced by Jen and machine quilted by the famous Angela Walters.

46” x 46”

Completed: 2012 and 2013

Materials: Assorted Quilting Cottons

I was asked to design a modern hexagon quilt for a class at a local quilt shop. Using the Hex N More Ruler, I designed the rainbow quilt first and made the earth toned quilt in the class through the demos. Both quilts were pieced and quilted on my domestic sewing machine.

Mod Hex 2:

Curated into the Roots of Modern Quilting Exhibit, 2013, New England Quilt Museum

Juried into QuiltCon 2015

24” x 24”

Completed: 2012

Materials: Madrona Road and Assorted Solids

This quilt was made for the Michael Miller Madrona Road Fabric Challenge. I was stumped on what to do with the prints, but eventually I decided to center the design around the large floral print with some wonky log cabin blocks. This quilt was pieced and quilted on my domestic sewing machine and was chosen as a finalist in the challenge and hung in the Michael Miller Booth at QuiltCon 2013.

24” x 14”

Completed: 2012, 2016

Materials: Kona Cottons & Assorted Cotton Prints

This was the first paper pieced quilt I ever designed and pieced. I was inspired by the colors of the first QuiltCon and wanted to make a more modern star pattern. I have recreated this quilt a couple times with modified layouts and love playing with this design. All quilts were pieced and quilted on my domestic sewing machine.

QuiltCon 2013: Juried