About Us
 

My earliest memory of a sewing machine was when I was about four or five. I hadn't even started school yet.  I would stand next to my mom and watch, mesmerized as she made two pieces of fabric become one. I remember going to Harvey Mart with her in town and running my fingers over the bolts of fabric. I was in love with fabric at an early age. She let me pick out fabric, and she made me the most beautiful red jumper with dainty strawberries, teeny tiny white flowers, yellow centers, and green leaves. More than remembering exactly how it looked, I can remember how it felt. Inside. She created something, gave it shape, gave her heart and soul, and gave it to me. I wore that jumper out; I loved it so much. She made many clothes for me, my brother, and my dad. My beautiful dolls with hand-stitched faces, and decorations to make our house a home.  And she passed her love of sewing on to me. And in no time, Santa brought me my own pink sewing machine! It was wonderful! I was cutting patterns, pinning, and sewing clothes for my dolls right next to my momma and I thought I was the grooviest girl in 1979. I made dozens of tube dresses from one piece of fabric and a piece of elastic.  

In 1993, my mother-in-law gave us a hand-made log cabin quilt as a wedding gift. And that feeling came back to me when I saw the stylish country blue and mauve fabrics that matched our soon-to-be new bedroom and ran my fingers over the hand stitched lines. And to know that she created something just for us, to keep us warm, that she put her heart and soul into. I had never had a quilt, and the cozy weight could not be compared to a bedspread or comforter. Like my mom, my mother-in-law now passed her love of quilting on to me. For my first birthday as her new daughter, she gave me a Kenmore sewing machine, and I felt like a little girl.  Once again, it was wonderful! She took me fabric shopping. I walked into the quilt shop and fell in love. I still remember that giddy feeling. In that moment, at the age of 20, I dreamed of having my own quilt shop.  With bolts of fabric from floor to ceiling, in every color imaginable. 

I come by it honestly. My whole life I’ve been surrounded by beautiful, talented sewists.  My Grandma sewed as well.  Losing her mom when she was only five years old, she raised her two younger brothers and learned to cook and sew out of necessity. She became a farmer’s wife and had eight children, and continued to sew and mend. But her need to sew, became a love to sew, and she continued sewing all the days of her life. 

My husband's grandma was an accomplished sewer as well, making her family clothes, and quilts for her grandchildren. Her mother was a professional seamstress. A widow who left Sweden to come to America, she earned enough to care for her two youngest children, still at home. Two generations later, my mother-in-love, is an accomplished quilter, who has taught three of her granddaughters to sew and quilt.

My two daughters come from a long line of ladies that love to sew.  When they were small I watched their tiny hands run over the bolts as I would shop for fabric, and I knew they had inherited a heart for fabric. And so, the tradition continues, we have taught them to sew, to quilt, to create. Generations pass, and the legacy continues.

Tonight, as I stood in my dream… at my very own quilt shop, with bolts of fabric from the floor to the ceiling, my heart was full.  And I thought of all the women in my life that led me to where I am now.  I’ve worn the clothes that their hands and hearts have made. I’ve slept under their warm quilts, with careful thought and love in every stitch. Their hearts have decorated my home and kept my children warm. 

To the ones who have passed on, and the ones I’m blessed to still have here with me now, I think of them with every stitch.  In everything I create, they’re with me. I hope they’re as proud of me as I am of them.  As I ran my fingers over the soft bolts of fabric tonight, I was reminded of how they instilled in me a love of fabric, of sewing.  I’m forever thankful. And I love them with all my heart, my cotton heart.

Dawn Renee Vroom

Cotton Hearts Quilt Shop… because I come from a long line of Cotton Hearts. Peggy Lee, Jill Susanne, Irma Jean, Ruth Edythe, Erna Martha, Dawn Renee, Molly JoAnne, Maggie Renee