Jeneen, whose schedule allows her to have creative time in the morning, likes to say that she starts her day with craft and ends her day with craft. Three years ago, Jeneen took a break from making fabric baskets with a sewing machine and began to crochet vessles with yarn (and ribbon and whatever she found) around clothesline. Collaborating with her husband, Peter, they added copper wire for flexibility and stability. This bowl could hold about anything that would fit inside because while it’s soft and fluffy with its eyelash yarn peeking out everywhere, it’s strong. Pretty on the outside, all business on the inside!
Like many young girls who grew up on a farm in central Minnesota, the first fiber skill she acquired was dish towel embroidery. She soon advanced to sewing and now Jeneen has a repertoire of skills that includes knitting, crochet, quilting, felt making and dye work.
Asking about her vessel making creative process, Jeneen sums it up with, “I wing it.” Combining different weights of yarn or fiber, she enjoys blending texture and color. Most often she makes sphere or round shapes so the bowl or basket is useful when it’s completed.
Note the red and white quilted star table runner underneath the basket. Jeneen hand pieced then hand quilted the runner using small embroidery stitches in an allover pattern. The quilt fabric comes from her mother’s stash of all cotton calico with wool batting on the inside.
Jeneen sells her handmade work at Home Essentials Boutique in Lake Elmo, MN.