When I was a young child, my grandmother taught me how to embroider, and embroidery is my second nature now. When I begin a sewing project, I rarely know where I am going with it. I simply begin sewing with a wide variety of stitches. That is why I advocate that people learn as many embroidery stitches as possible.

Blue on Blue – Jacki Kellum Embroidery

From My Garden – Jacki Kellum Embroidery

Night Garden – Jacki Kellum Embroidery

Night Garden – Jacki Kellum Embroidery Detail

Garden at Blue Bayou – Jacki Kellum Embroider

It is also because of my grandmother that I love gardening. Most of my textile art is a celebration of my grandmother. Each winter, my grandmother would set up her quilting frame in the light that came through her dining room windows, and she would quilt. Her dining room table became her cutting board, and I loved to sit beside my grandmother as she cut up old dresses, shirts, and flour sacks and then arranged them into quilting patterns. Through that process, I learned to love the pictures that had been printed on the fabrics, and my grandmother’s fabrics became the first art gallery that I would have the opportunity to visit.