Three art quilts were included in 2025 American Quilter’s Society special exhibition
By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Jennifer Morlock has a lifelong passion for transforming fabric into art, a gift, or a cherished remembrance of a moment in time or a person in her life.
The past year was a dream come true for Morlock when three of her quilts were accepted for the juried American Quilter’s Society’s (AQS) special exhibition.
Her art quilt—“My Dream ‘Embellished’ Cabana”—was part of the exhibition that traveled from February through September to shows in Daytona Beach, Florida; Branson, Missouri; Paducah, Kentucky; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Her art quilts titled “Hope” and “Sunshine Always” were chosen to be included in the prestigious Paducah AQS exhibition.
The cabana art quilt was part of an AQS challenge called “My Cabana.” Quilters received a kit that included felt and the pre-created cabana. The quilters were tasked with personalizing the cabana. Morlock chose to embellish the cabana with beads from a bracelet that she picked out of free art materials shared by members at a Black Swamp Quilter’s meeting.
“Sunshine Always” was her own design andcreation that was part of an art group challenge. It was displayed in Paducah in 2025 as an individual entry and in the AQS Grand Rapids show in 2024 as part of a group entry from Art2Quilt.
Her “Hope” quilt started as a graffiti quilt from the person before her. “I chose to just have fun with my everyday sewing machine,” Morlock said. She learned a trick with the trusty machine to stitch the thread to look like writing. She first learned to write her name in stitches and learned how to write other words as well
Because the quilt included material from one of her mother’s dresses and leftover fabric she had used to make a quilt for an Extension Service colleague who passed away, “it just all tied together with hope,” the word she stitched into the design, she said.
The award-winning quilts are a few of the hundreds and hundreds of traditional and art quilts she has created throughout her life, starting with her first traditional quilt for a 4-H project.
She grew up surrounded by sewing and quilting projects thanks to her mother, Rita Trumbull, and grandmother, Dolores Goris, who always had a quilt frame set up in her living room, Morlock recalled.
“But a lot of my interest and skills fall back to my 4-H projects,” she said. “I did not study art, but I took all the home interior and decorating projects and creative arts projects in 4-H. I see the lessons that were instilled in me through my project work.”
While those lessons deepened her knowledge and love for quilt making, they were just the beginning for the Custar, Ohio, native.
In the two quilting groups she has joined—Black Swamp Quilters Guild and Art2Quilt—she has found “a family that fosters inspiration, shares knowledge and materials and supports one another’s creative endeavors,” she said. “I have met the most wonderful, gracious people through the organizations who are so giving of their talents.”
The Art2Quilt group has enhanced her interest in creating art quilts, which are often deeply personal, incorporating fabrics and items with sentimental value.
Twenty years ago, member Jean Obermeyer brought in a portrait quilt of her son that intrigued Morlock. She took an online class about portrait quilts and created one of her husband Rob and his mother. JoAnn Morlock. The completed piece ended up being included in a Quilt University Columbus show. And she was hooked.
Creating such personal art quilts is intensely emotional. In 2023, after her father (Ron Trumbull) passed away, she added some fabric from his jeans to the “Sunshine Always” quilt, which made the group quilt “different and made for my heart, too,” she said.
The quilt groups and participating in the AQS contests and getting into the show has been eye-opening and circle-expanding. “Getting into the show is a big endeavor that has allowed me to meet people from across the nation,” she said. “It’s so fulfilling to see what all is out there and what’s new.”
One of her goals is to ensure the artistic medium continues into the next generation. That is why her work with the Wood County 4-H program through Ohio State University Extension has been such a gift.
“Showing what we’re doing, what can be done and where you can go with it, is a big key to keeping those sewing machines going and keeping things moving,” she said.
She hopes to revive the 4-H quilters group that originated in 2010-2011. As part of that effort, she was heavily involved in creating the 4-H project book for quilting. Once the project book was available to any 4-H’ers, the group dissolved. “But I think maybe it’s time to bring the 4-H quilters back,” Morlock said.
For her, the time spent quilting is therapeutic, providing her with peace and a place of calmness.
Fabric and thread are a lot like a canvas, paint and brushes,” she said, explaining the artistic process of free-motion quilting and framing textiles as a legitimate artistic medium.
She finds solace in her sewing studio in her Pemberville area home with husband Rob and dog Max.
“I often get asked, ‘How do you find time?’ I make time because it makes me happy and brings me peace. It’s an essential role in my mental health.”
She hosts her own Instagram account, @JennyLouiseQuilts, and has plans to add videos to her platform.
Her most recent accomplishment, which she learned about the day after the interview, was being accepted into a Quilting Arts Magazine challenge. “I have tried three times over the years, and I finally made it,” she said.
The challenge theme is “Vintage Now.”
“In my quilt, I featured my Mother Rita Trumbull, Grandma and Grandpa, Dolores and Emil Goris, who continue to influence me although they have passed many years ago,” she said. The “Stitched Connections” quilt will be featured in the spring issue.
