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As most of you know me I am Jena, the Technician that cleans, fixes and pampers your machines, but what you may not know is that I am also Jena, Gingers Daughter, and Jena, Shae's mom. Ginger, as some of you may have had the pleasure of meeting, worked at the store for several years helping pick out fabrics, sell machines and working the floor. She is the reason I am here. And Shae, well she is our kit cutter, longarm person, shipping and jack of all trades. 3 generations of Pinecones all doing what we love where we love!
Sewing actually runs much deeper than that in our family, my Grandmother Mary, was a wonderful seamstress.
She made a lot of beautiful clothing and shared her love of sewing, good fabrics and amazing machines with my mother. Her main love was always making clothing, or wool suits. Her enthusiasm for sewing sparked an interest in my mother Ginger. 
She took that spark and grew it with me and my two sisters, who at the age of 5 sat behind my mom's old Bernina Record 830 sewing paper designs practicing staying on the lines til we could get good enough to thread the machine and start with something more. We spent hours tracing circles and boxes and lines. All three of us sewed very abidly threw our school years with 4-H. We made costumes for concerts,
wool suits, 
prom dresses, dusters for riding, and even wedding gowns. It was and still is one of the most useful skills we have.
In my early 20's I took a class for a table runner, the Ohio Star to be exact and fell in love with Quilting! I took that 3 block table runner and turned it into a queen size quilt in a matter of days. I was to say the least hooked!
I spent many hours sewing with a baby on my knee making quilts. My oldest son would come to fabric store I worked at with me and would roll around on the quilts as I would try to piece them together. He loved to try to steer the fabric threw as I ran the gas on the machine and make his own version of a quilt. To this day he jokes about the calming sound of a sewing machine reminding him of his childhood.
My passion for sewing is almost strictly quilting these days, 
but the generations of love that has been passed down and taught runs deeper than I can even begin to describe, and now as I watch my own daughter take the rains on Longarm and start her journey into the world of sewing I know this is one passion that will live on for more generations to come. 
It seems so fitting to be 3 generations deep at the Pine Needles store where it was built off mom and pop values and grown by a mother /daughter team (now joined by husband and granddaughter (at times). ) Quilters have a bond and love for each other just as if we were all one big family, sharing our joys and successes, picking each other up threw our oopsies and mistakes. And building each other up for a job well done! As one of our most amazing customers said this is our "Happy" place, this causes and brings us Joy! I love that after all these years of watching all the wonderful roll models in my life get such joy and happiness from sewing, I now can too get that same sense of wonderful, and can pass it down for many more stitches and many more years to come.
What a great family history of sewing! I really enjoyed the pics of your mom and grandmother and their sewing. That heart quilt is AMAZING!!! I also had a mom that made a lot of my clothes growing up – even my nylon tricot underwear that lasted forever! So every Christmas I made matching outfits for my son and step-daughter. Family traditions!
Thank you for sharing. I always enjoyed your mom too. A great story.
I did teach Jena to sew, but her love of quilting gave me the desire to try quilting. Jena taught me to see the “square” in a quilt, shading of colors, value of good quality fabric, and a love of the serenity of creating.
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Marj
May 16, 2021
So enjoyed reading this Jena! Thanks for sharing!