Established 2020

Opal’s Story

One of my most treasured objects as a child was a pink, flowered quilt made by my Great Grandmother Elsie. This poor quilt had definitely seen better days: it had small holes in it because the cat zoomed across it with claws out, and it had typical wear and tear. But this quilt lived on my bed as my primary blanket for over a decade until the holes took over and it was transformed into a bed runner by my Mom.

After Elsie passed away in the late 1990s, my family discovered a stash of quilts with a note indicating that each great granddaughter was to receive one! I joyfully selected a hand-appliqued pink flowered quilt reminiscent of my childhood quilt.

Fast forward a few decades. After years of competitive motorsport as my primary past time, I was looking for a restful hobby that didn’t involve cars or thousands of dollars to enjoy. Then a friend mentioned they had a sewing machine for sale and I decided to dive into making a quilt with no understanding of what I was undertaking.

Many classes and quilts later, I am still using that beautiful sewing machine my friend sold me. However, tired of wrestling with huge quilts and negotiating time on a rental longarm machine, I eventually invested in a used longarm machine of my own late in 2019 and started up Crafty Penguin to justify owning such a fancy machine – so much for that whole “didn’t involve thousands of dollars to enjoy” thing!

I greatly enjoy making quilts that are treasured and loved by their new owners. Many of my quilts are collaborations with my customers, as they bring their ideas and design ideas to me to build into the perfect quilt.