About Me
I have been sewing most of my life, and remember sewing simple doll clothes as a girl, with my mother’s guidance. She taught me the basics of sewing clothes when I was a teenager. In college, my boyfriend bought an old Singer sewing machine in a cabinet (for $20) and delivered it to my dorm room so I could finish a shirt started by his previous girlfriend.
I married him anyway a few years later, and he has continued to buy me newer and better sewing machines ever since! Upstairs, I have my old Kenmore and a serger, while my studio downstairs has a Juki TL98-Q, the Viking I inherited from my mother-in-law, and of course, my Gammill Classic Plus longarm quilter.
When our three daughters were young, I sewed many T-shirts (sometimes in matching sets for the whole family), dresses (including several formals), and pants (even a few pairs of “Hammer pants”). I did a lot of mending, and even replaced coat zippers to avoid replacing otherwise perfectly good jackets.
I sewed several quilts for our daughters, but did not really think of myself as a quilter until I won the Grand Champion award for my queen-size watercolor quilt at the 2004 Porter County Fair. Since then, I have received many awards for other quilts and wall-hangings, and sewn many prize-winning banners for my church.
I enjoy other types of needlework, including counted cross-stitch, knitting and crocheting.
I am also a piano teacher, and my husband and I are church musicians. We play in several concert bands, including a German Band for which I sewed my own dirndl, blouse and apron. We enjoy traveling to see our three daughters in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Laurel Hahn
