Jen Kingwell

Jen has been lucky in her life to have had two wonderful careers. Her first love was midwifery and she felt honoured to be included in life’s most precious every day miracles. She doesn’t know where her love of fabrics came from, her mother was not a sewer but she does know she has always been fascinated by colour and pattern. Like many she tried different crafts and stumbled into quilting over 30 years ago and there she has remained. An interest became an obsession which then became her career, including teaching and designing. She has owned quilt stores for 15 years and currently owns amitie Textiles in Melbourne Australia www.amitie.com.au and Instagram @amitie_textiles. The store offers an eclectic mix of fabrics including Japanese, Liberty of London, linens from Europe, french toiles and a wide collection of patchwork fabrics of course including Moda!!

She describes herself as a traditional quilter with a modern twist. Loves scrappy quilts and the more fabrics she can use in a single project the happier she is. In her perfect world she would hand stitch everything but with today’s busy lifestyle she does machine piece as well. Hand appliqué and quilting are among her favourite pastimes.

Jen is married and has 3 fabulous daughters Meg, Abby and Lucy who are by far her very best designs. She currently lives in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi UAE with her husband Richard who is working there. She has left the store in the capable hands of Lucy, her youngest daughter and the experienced staff. This has enabled her to spend more time expanding and developing her range of patterns, write her book “Quilt Lovely” which will be released in February 2015 and design her first line of fabric.