Utah author's son was instrumental in helping create quilting book

KAYSVILLE — Unlike many quilters, Jenny Wilding Cardon did not grow up playing under her mother's quilting frames. She did not learn to sew as a child, did not take home economics in high school.

In fact, it was not until she got married and her husband's work took her to Seattle that she discovered quilts — and even then it was kind of a back-door thing.

"I had a degree in women's studies with a minor in English, but I had always liked writing, and I found a job as a copywriter at Martingale & Company." Martingale, it turns out, "is about the biggest quilt book publisher in the world."

Cardon "fell into a pool of quilters," she says. "These were all people who were working there, not necessarily for the money, but for the love of quilts."

Their enthusiasm for the craft was infectious, and "within two months, I had made my first quilt. I didn't even have a sewing machine, so I did it all by hand. Then I bought a sewing machine, and I totally fell in love with quilting."

That was 10 years ago. In 2000, the Cardons moved back to Utah, but she got to keep her job, working from home as a telecommuter. And she still made quilts.

Then she had her son, Jack. "I gave up quilting. I was a Mom; I was too busy to sew. I even gave my fabric stash away to the local quilt guild here. I decided my creative life was over."

But the quilting bug would not leave her alone. "I knew there had to be room in my life somewhere for quilting, and I started sketching out some baby quilts. It was like I gave myself permission to do quilts for my baby — that was OK."

And that's how Cardon's "The Little Box of Baby Quilts" (Martingale & Co., $22.95), came about. It was published this spring.

Cardon started sketching designs and making quilts, and her husband, Brett, encouraged her to submit a proposal to the company she worked for. "I put a proposal together but didn't really expect anything. I was surprised when they sent me a contract asking me to do 20 quilts in the next nine months. I thought that was kind of funny — it was like having another baby."

The quilt-book "pregnancy" turned out to be a great experience in more ways than one, she says. It was fun — and a learning experience — for her to come up with the designs and put the quilts together. "Sometimes I'd have to try something two or three times to find what worked." But it was also a project that benefitted the whole family.