Hi, My name is Cheri Samon. I grew up in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. We moved to Florida when I was 13. I met my husband Joe and we had our son, Joel. That was 40 years ago. I was working in corporate America and was laid off and thought to myself “what now?”. The answer came – “what do you love to do”.
The answer was quilting. I had taught myself and decided I would try to open a quilt shop. Well, all the pieces fell together and The Quilting Bee in St. Petersburg, Florida, was born.
Nine years later and two granddaughter’s ( Kaylyn and Kylee ) later, I made the decision to close the retail shop. We bought the house next door and it is now the shop / house. I moved my Gammill long arm quilting machine in one of the rooms and have been quilting and making quilts for customers for the last 4 years there. I have been making tee shirt quilts for about 13 years.
I have a customer who has 9 kids and she has a box for each child. When they get ready to graduate she drops off their box and I make their Memory quilt for their graduation. I am on quilt number 5. I really enjoy making memory and tee shirt quilts. I am working on 4 memory quilts for four girls who lost their grandpa and they each have there memory tee shirts of him and their own shirts that I am putting in their quilts. They are going to be able to wrap up in these quilts and their grandpa’s love.
I have made quilts for boys starting at T- ball until High School for there graduation. Ones of girls from baby dresses to Gymnastics and high school. Marathon runners, boating, collage, memory, even my husbands box of tee shirts. That is now the one that has the Paul McCartney T-shirt from when we went to the concert.
My granddaughters each have a box that they are saving their tee shirts to make their own unique quilts about their lives. I have a Harley Davidson quilt on the machine right now and that gentleman is so excited to see it done. He will be able to remember all the good times and wrap up in it.
I have a very blessed and happy life to be able to put all these memories into keepsake quilts. I really enjoy putting these stories of lives into quilts. They are so interesting and I love to see how much everyone loves them.
Thank you very much for checking out my website.
I hope I can make your memories into a Custom T-Shirt Quilt.
Thank you,
Cheri Samon
