2026 Featured Quilter Jennifer Perry Price Program 09/17/26

Our September Program will feature Jennifer’s quilting journey and a review of her quilts.

Jennifer shares her inspirations for quilting and sewing:

I made my first quilt when I was a senior in high school. Before that, I had been making my own clothes since 6th grade. I started out sewing with my mother and seeing how she used patterns when sewing clothing. I began designing my own clothes and altering existing patterns when I was in 6th grade. My mother would help me sew out my creations. By 11th grade, I was making my prom dresses from my own designs and drawing my own patterns. I made cheerleading camp uniforms and song leader pinafores for my cheer teams. We didn’t want to ask one of the moms to make them all and I had ideas for the original designs I wanted. When I was a senior in high school, I got a job in the fabric department at TG&Y, and that is where I found my first quilt pattern.

Both of my grandmothers were very good seamstresses also and both quilted. My whole life I was surrounded by quilts. Even the blanket I took to preschool for naps was a quilt that had been made for my mom when she was a child. I learned a lot from both of my Grandmothers. They each had fabric around that I was free to create with. I learned to sew on a treadle machine at one grandmother’s house, and learned a lot of hand sewing techniques, and how to make draperies from the other grandmother.

I have an AA in both Fashion Merchandising and Home Economics from Fullerton College, which at the time the Fashion Merchandising program was equivalent to the Fashion Institute in Los Angeles. The course requirements included designing, pattern drafting, and draping as well as construction. I have a BS in Home Economics with my emphasis in Fashion Merchandising. I have drafted patterns and sewn for a designer, but never had the financial backing to start my own label but I have always continued to sew for myself and my family.

When my brother and his wife started having children, I made each child a flannel rag quilt, and I think that is when I caught the bug. I started making flannel rag quilts for Halloween and Christmas with designs I made up for my daughter and me.

I designed and made several figure skating dresses for my daughter, a huge t-shirt like quilt, but out of my daughter’s sweatshirts from eleven years of skating competitions. I did not layer or quilt it because the sweatshirt fabric was heavy enough.

Not too long after that, I started enjoying going to quilt shows and the Quilt, Craft, and Sewing show every year. I would get inspired, and start purchasing patterns, and fabrics. Since I have been retired (almost 8 Years) quilting keeps me out of trouble. I love having projects to do. I want to feel purposeful. My closet is full, so making clothes for myself isn’t necessary, so I sew quilts. I don’t stick to one style, I love learning new techniques. My quilts don’t really look like they belong to a collection, they are more individual, and what I wanted to make or learn at a time or I just thought was cute. I have over 20 project boxes full of fabric and the patterns for future quilts, two Judy Neimeyer kits, two more of her patterns and some fabric to go with them, at least five projects in process, and lots more ideas in my head. I keep buying fabric because I believe I have to live long enough to finish everything.

Be sure to see Jennifer’s quilt display at the BBQ Quilt Show on September 25 and 26, 2026.