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LEHI — Quilters from around the world are preparing to hang their handiwork in the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. It's the fifth year the iconic Utah County landscape will hold the Garden of Quilts exhibition.
Jennifer Long lives in a rural area of Manitoba, Canada, and has been sewing since she was a young girl. Her grandmother owned a sewing and knitting shop, so she grew up making outfits for her dolls and wearing clothes sewn by her mother.
It was "embedded in who (her mother) was" and once Long got married and became pregnant, she wanted to sew for her own children. She and her husband moved to the countryside, into a "huge quilting community," which was a "perfect gateway" for Long to get into quilting.
With her love of art, tactile texture and fabrics, Long quickly fell in love with quilting and used the medium as a way to express herself.
She started designing quilt patterns and was able to make a living out of quilting, while also staying at home with her kids through her Sew A Story business. Four years ago, Long decided to also become a fabric designer and, after being rejected once, she was offered a job at Utah County-based Riley Blake Designs.
Through that "dream job," Long met multiple quilters and designers who spoke highly of the Garden of Quilts show at Thanksgiving Point — so she started submitting quilts each year.
"It combines everything we love. It combines the shopping of fabric, it combines the classes, it combines the community, it combines the outdoors, it combines the amazing beautiful gardens, hundreds of quilts, evening events. It's just like no other event," Long said. "It's about the community of quilters."
The event includes a quilt exhibition with almost 500 hand-made quilts from artists around the world, classes and lectures, group meals, open sew time, a free admission vendor marketplace and other events to network and connect with the quilting community. Garden of Quilts is the largest quilting festival in Utah and will be held Sept. 13-16 at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi.
A special exhibition Sept. 15-16, will display the quilts throughout the 50-acre Ashton Gardens.
Long said it is thrilling to have her quilts hang in nature, with "beautiful backdrops." She loves building friendships and connections with people who see her work.
"The other beautiful thing about quilting is, it's therapeutic," Long said. "All that time and love that you spend in creating something and then to see it gifted to someone that you love and them enjoying it, wrapping themselves around with it, crying into it, taking it with them as a comfort in some way. It's such a beautiful extension of who I wanted to be as a mother."
Long will be teaching two classes on quilt patterns during the festival. One pattern is called "the Greatest Gift" and tells the story of the Nativity. The other pattern is called "Quilted Fields" as a nod to agricultural fields and both quilts use fabric she designed.
"I'm really about telling stories with my quilts," she said. The story can come from different parts of the quilt: the fabric, the piecing, the different blocks, or even from the quilting that is done on top to bring all the layers together. "It really is a whole layer of love."
Long said the festival is an uplifting, positive environment that provides an opportunity for people to expose themselves to the world of quilting and fabric art.
"(It's) the perfect combination of environment and craft together. It's different seeing all of the work, how many hundreds of hours and thousands of hours that have gone into all these crafts. It's humbling and breathtaking, and so worth the travel," Long said.
Long said the event is perfect for people like her, who make about 40-60 quilts a year, and for those who have never made any fabric art before. People can come to learn how to make small fabric projects or further their quilting skills.
Long's second love is early childhood education and she frequently incorporates aspects of that into her craft. She prioritizes teaching her children how to sew, to appreciate handmade items and to bring families together through creating.
"It's really shaped who I am and my designs and I try to pass that on now that my kids are growing up and older, so people can share that same experience with the kids and families in their lives."
