the Face side of lucky penny
Hi there, I’m Sarah Rose! I’m the owner of Lucky Penny Quilting.
I’m a team of 2: myself and Penny, my Gammill Statler Stitcher. I’ve always had an interest in moving from domestic machine work into longarm quilting and I finally made the plunge in 2020. Penny and I have become best of friends and we love working together on all your lovely quilts.
This business is my passion project where I spend my nights and weekends in my sewing room stitching up your quilts. During my weekdays I work for an EdTech company in the California Bay Area.
My History in Quilting
I created my first quilt at the age of 9 with the help of my paternal grandmother who shared with me an abundance of scraps and knowledge about quilting. I remember putting away thread and organizing scraps in her quilt shop in Grass Valley, CA whenever I stopped by on visits with my family. I’d spend long weekends and parts of my Spring or Summer breaks staying with her and my grandfather eating Cheez-its, reading books, and quilting to my hearts content.
9 year old me sewing in my grandmother’s sewing room.
My first quilt.
My grandmother’s handwriting.
When I was 15 years old I went into The Granary quilt shop in Sunnyvale, CA to buy some fabric for my next trip up to my grandmother’s. While I was there I got to know the owner who told me very seriously to come back in a year and she’d give me a job. I never forgot that generous offer and a year later was working at the shop 2-3 days a week after school and on weekends.
My time at the shop built on the foundation my grandmother had laid out for me and my knowledge for quilting grew exponentially. Every day I learned something new. I read books, made store samples, and took classes. During my work hours when customers came in, I got a lesson in a variety of techniques and learned enough over time to start offering help of my own. All of these lovely people at the shop, coworkers and customers alike, became my second set of sisters, mothers, grandmothers and closest friends.
Me teaching a Summer Kid’s Camp
Sock Hop themed Shop Hop
Roaring Twenties themed Shop Hop
I worked at the shop for 10 years while attending high school, then college, and even after I found myself a full time job in my field of study. I finally “retired” around 2014, deciding my full time job kept me busy enough. In my free time after leaving the shop I joined my local modern quilt guild, the Silicon Valley Modern Quilt Guild, which was just forming at the time. I took a role on the board in 2014 and haven’t stopped since. My community of quilters growing again, tenfold.
Quilting has been, and I imagine always will be, a part of my world. I’m grateful to all the paths I’ve walked to get where I am today. It is my favorite community of creative, inspirational, and truly wonderful people.
An aside: My paternal grandmother passed in 2014 after a steady decline due to dementia. Lucky Penny Quilting is in part her legacy. I miss her.
Love you always, Grandma Betty Lou. – Your Rosebud
The Origin Story of “Lucky Penny”
Family is special to me. I’ve learned this through quilting, I think.
Touching each piece of fabric, sewing each stitch is a labor of love and time. Time I spend thinking about the people in my life and creating pieces for them.
So not knowing my maternal grandfather growing up (he passed when I was 2) was hard. I (even still) don’t know too much about him besides a few facts:
He was a milkman.
I can see his face in my mother’s face — and in my aunts’ and uncle’s faces too.
He collected pennies in a giant jug he kept in my the living room of my grandparent’s home.
These facts do not make a person who they are but since I didn’t know much more, they were the things I held close when I thought of him.
Growing up I didn’t think much of pennies. I didn’t think of my grandfather or his jug when I saw a penny. They were just there. Seemingly everywhere and all the time when I was a child. As I got older and in the time of credit cards and Paypal I just stopped seeing them.
A few years ago, when I was going through a tough time (as your twenties will do to you — finding your true self and all that), I kept finding them everywhere. In the parking lot of my apartment complex, near the driveway of my parent’s house, on walks in my neighborhood. I’d find one rummaging in a pouch of old jewelry or see one on top of a railing while wandering through the city with friends. It’s like all at once they were everywhere again.
Seeing them now reminded me of my grandfather and it sparked joy in my day when I came upon one. Like a little whisper from him to me about keeping my head up and eyes open. It would remind me how magical life could be if we just paid a little more attention to the little things.
Maybe the pennies had always been there and I just stopped looking or maybe they showed up when I needed them most. Whatever the case, the happiness they bring to me now is sacred and special. Just like quilting.