EASTHAMPTON — Jessa Tower often found herself the odd one out when she would walk into a new quilting workshop or group.
The average quilter tends to be above the age of 65, Caucasian and upper middle class. Experienced quilters matching these demographics, Tower noticed, also carried a mentality of “the old guard.” Many were unwilling to share their knowledge with the next generation.
“As a queer body person, I could never see myself there, and I was never welcome there,” she said.
So when the opportunity presented itself for Tower to open her own quilting and sewing studio, she was going to offer the next generation of crafters something she never had: accessibility.
“It’s what I need to do to be a steward of this craft, and not another gatekeeper, and not another barrier for people to come in and be able to do this,” Tower said. “I know what the older generation can do. I’ve seen it. I want to know what the next generations are going to do, and I want to know what they’re going to create.”
Located on the second floor of Eastworks, quilting and sewing studio Hoop and Bee sits along the bus line and bike path. The newly installed electrical system allows people with mobility aids to navigate the space without tripping on wires. Each of the eight tables displays sewing machines, irons and cutting mats like a new crafter might arrange atop their kitchen table. Every piece of Hoop and Bee has been carefully designed and stitched to create a single space for anyone of any skill level or background to begin fabric crafts.
“It is literally my goal that somebody gets off the bus with nothing but their bottle of water, and they can walk upstairs and start sewing,” Tower said. “You need nothing to get started, which is a great way for people to come into a new craft and decide if they like this.”
As part of this accessibility mission, Hoop and Bee offers a variety of beginner classes. One class simply teaches people all the knobs and buttons on a sewing machine. Other offerings dive a little deeper into beginning quilting or clothing alterations for a variety of body types. More advanced classes are project-based, like making a single garment or quilt, but they are all beginner friendly.
“You can learn to do something on YouTube, you can see how it works, but like that doesn’t explain how your hands actually do the thing, how you hold the device,” Hoop and Bee Creative Director Rachael Frank said. “You can see somebody doing it, and you can mimic it. But it’s not the same as sitting down in a room and trying to actually do it.”
For quilt along classes, where students sew an entire quilt, Hoop and Bee sells quilt kits at highly discounted rates. The kits consist of donated fabrics and a premade pattern. Tower recommends the kits because they carry little emotional attachment to the purchaser, so it’s less personal when mistakes are made.
The studio’s supply of tools and fabrics not only alleviates the burden on students, but instructors as well. Northampton Modern Quilt Guild Member Diane Wespiser taught her first quilting circle and intro to modern quilting class classes at Hoop and Bee. The color-coded baskets of student fabric and the organized shelf of every sewing tool meant she didn’t need to lug all her own supplies to class each month.
“Whenever you want to learn something new, you don’t even know what there is to learn,” Wespiser said. “But Jessa is extremely creative herself and has a lot of great examples of quilt styles and things sewers can do. Not everyone has a studio like that.”
Beginners often do not know what tools they might need to complete a project, Wespiser said. If students need a tool they do not have, their project might get stalled a week until they buy the tool. But when a student needs a tool at Hoop and Bee, all Wespiser has to do is ask Tower where it is.
“I really love her setup. It’s welcoming, she’s welcoming, and the tools and machines are there,” Wespiser said.
Tower’s approach has successfully brought in an array of demographics into Hoop and Bee. She’s especially proud of how many masculine people take classes, a demographic not traditionally associated with quilting and sewing.
When the general public pictures men’s hobbies, Tower explains, they are “of a duration of non-interruptible time,” like fixing a car. But women’s hobbies, she said, can be put down to take care of a child, and then picked back up again. During the New Deal, Tower said, imagery of women quilting together, specifically in churches or for charitable causes, proliferated throughout the United States by government agencies.
“Those are really antiquated ideas of what quilting should be. So I’m really excited just to see the breadth of the demographics that are willing to learn and willing to come in,” Tower said.
Hoop and Bee is part workshop, part studio and part retail space for Tower’s quilts and quilting services. Quilts for sale are on display at the studio, as well as cards made from scraps. At Eastworks Open Studio events, Hoop and Bee always sells a stitched creation for those who want to support the business but cannot drop $500 on a quilt.
“When fabric comes in, we’ll use it to make the biggest quilts first, and then, as we generate more scraps, smaller and smaller quilts,” Tower said. “Then we can do little smaller things, like these cards with them. And then when they get too small to use, they’re set aside to make paper with, so that way we’re not contributing to textile waste.”
Tower also brings her accessibility mindset to her personal quilting work. She offers longarm quilting services used to finish the quilt, custom quilting and even “legacy quilts” made from old projects or fabrics from those who passed.
Kathy Bowler has been quilting for 35 years, and she puts Tower with some of the best longarm quilters she’s worked with.
“Jessa has a beautiful eye for deisgn, and she’s really patient about working through one’s vision of what you want a quilt to look like,” Bowler said. “When you do a quilt, you want to make decisions on how heavily you want it quilted, an overall quilting design or enhancing certain aspects of the quilt, the thread color and the type of batting. Jessa really talks through those considerations. She listens so well to what you want to accomplish, and she offers her input too, which is so important.”
Hoop and Bee is open by appointment only, so anyone who wants to use the studio must register online first. Prices and length of classes vary depending on the project. Workshops, open sew periods or even Tower’s private lessons last a couple hours. Project-based classes can meet for several weeks or even months. Check Hoop and Bee’s website for more details on each class.
“We’re all learning all the time. Just, just go for it,” Frank said. “Nobody here is gonna be like, ‘Oh, your quilt is dumb.’ Everybody here is gonna be like, ‘Yo, you made a quilt!’”
