designer profile JE
Growing up, quilt-maker Jenni Smith was surrounded by creativity. “My parents and grandparents were always making things so, invariably, I was encouraged to have a go too,” she says. “Then, when I was a teenager, a friend of my mother’s taught me dress-making, which is something I still enjoy, including designing my own patterns.”
Quilts came onto Jenni’s radar when she was living in Toronto in 2006. Her husband was busy doing a medical fellowship and most of Jenni’s time was spent looking after their one-year-old son, but she did have a few hours to herself each week while he was at nursery. “The first time I dropped him off, I felt rather lost,” Jenni confesses, “but next to the nursery was a quilting shop, which drew me in with
