4.1.1950 - 7.4.2008
video : A hand quilting lesson given by Jennie at the 2007 Quilt Pocket Jamboree
I want to share my memories of a wonderful quilting friend. Jennie and I made our connection through internet quilting groups. There are thousands of us who have met her. And thousands of Jennie stories.
To know a part of Jennie is to know gleeful sunshine, good cheer, and boundless warmth. To experience Jennie is to feel cared about, connected and ready to enjoy life as it unrolls the path ahead.
One night a few years ago I was listening (with the slightest bit of aggro) to the roar of the F1 racers as they accelerated engines around the curves of the route. The noise was in the other room. As per our usual "ships passing in the night" Jennie made her daytime appearance online and I am ready to go to bed. She comments on the loudness of the roaring engines and I found it so amusing that she wrote what I was thinking. I recalled however that my noise was in the next room and she was across the world from me.
Jennie was listening to the Australian Gran Prix. Dear son JKG was watching the very same race just metres away. Jen told me she was there, living close by. I could go and look at the same sky she saw and the same city scape.
JKG loves his F1 and Dub had a neighbour friend who also loved F1. In fact he worked for team Honda. Jen began a collection of local news clippings, posters, memorabila and real F1 pit crew vests and sent these across the pond to dear Keith. Flabbergasted at her generosity to an internet pal's son we began to share many laughs and thoughts about our boys - both dearly lovable and caring men and our daughters - new women moving forth in the wide world outside our arm's reach.
Jennie continued sending the F1 souvenirs even after she no longer had access to the neighbour's swag. Just a few weeks ago another package arrived for him. Even with the fight that Jennie was having for her own wellness she remembered others.
I could ask Jennie any question and none of them seemed awkward. She was right back with a straight-forward answer. I wanted advice on making a "chemo-hat" for a friend and I did not stop to think it inappropriate to ask Jennie. She knew too well. Jennie's strongly worded advice was that "we do not call them chemo caps - they are hats". Make it soft and make it a real hat, just a bit deeper and a bit smaller.
There are many stories about Jennie's love for hand quilting - she was a superstar at it, her generosity with her talents, her speed and the beauty of her work, her love of colour, her laugh when you asked her about the 60's and 70's and her endless acts of kindness to others.
I am enriched by Jennie. She will always exist in every happy colour I see. Jennie endlessly loved her family: Peter, Jess and Dub. Jennie loved life.
...and I, like her many other friends, love Jennie.
Thank you so much for this! I had never heard her speak. I plan to learn to hand quilt soon and will use this as a guide.
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