Cottage Industries - Montana Style: Jade Benjamin's Handquilted Happiness

Handquilted Happiness is the perfect name for Jade Benjamin's home-based business. Now 18, she started sewing at age 11, hasn't stopped since, and has no plans to do so. With her bowl cozies, purses and quilts, she loves creating useful items that exist and bring happiness.

Growing up in the Kalispell area, Jade was looking for a hobby so she and her dad Bruce Benjamin went into the Quilt Gallery on a whim. Not only did she find a, so-far, life hobby, but Jade learned how to sew and ended up helping out, making shop samples, first for owner Joan Hodgeboom and later for new owner Marianne Buller. She'd found her niche and remained there until moving to Whitehall when she was 14.

Handquilted Happiness got its start about three years ago and whenever Jade's not working, she can be found in her studio sewing, quilting, working on something.

"My studio was just filling up with stuff because I like making things but I didn't have an outlet so it turned into a byproduct of me being able to make things," Jade said. "I started making what's probably my largest selling item, bowl cozies, and I sell tons of them. You put your bowl in the cozy, it's microwavable, so you won't burn your hand, and for ice cream, your hand won't get too cold."

Another item Jade is really excited about is her fabric purses, with zippered pockets and adjustable shoulder straps.

"I really like pockets in purses so I love adding a heinous amount of pockets. I also don't like carrying large purses, so I like making them a usable size," she added. Also on display in Jade's studio are her quilts. One she's most proud of, diamonds with a purple background is a shop sample she made at the Quilt Gallery. It took her six months to complete.

"When I moved here they let me take it with me. It was so much fun," she said.

She's excited about her longarm quilting machine, which loads all three layers into a metal frame and sews three layers at once. By moving the machine by hand, she creates the stitching pattern, both vertically and horizontally, allowing for different styles on one quilt. At present she's stitching a blue and yellow quilt with celestial patterned fabrics; she put it together in one weekend.

Jade's working on getting the word out that people can send her their quilt tops and backs and she can do the long arm stitching on them, providing them with a finished quilt.

Six months ago she got a job at Be Lazy Quilting in Three Forks and is enjoying getting back into the quilt world as well as finding inspiration for her projects. It's also a good source for her fabric, which she likes to buy locally.

"I love working there because I'm surrounded by color and inspiration, and people who are more experienced than me who can give me tips on things and ideas," she said. "They'll be getting in a custom fabric showcasing the Three Forks area with Lewis and Clark, Sacajawea, and the mountains; I'm really excited to work with that and use it in some quilts."

Handquilted Happiness will be at the Whitehall Farmers Market this summer, about once a month; at the Manhattan Potato Festival in August, and Settings carries her bowl cozies. Jade also invites customers to contact her to order cozies in specific colors.

Jade's cottage industry fits her lifestyle, which she describes as just sewing. Between the steps involved and her different projects, she never tires of it. She also believes everyone should quilt or do something creative that gives them a sense of accomplishment. She credits her mother Jennifer Benjamin with getting her started.

"I was home-schooled so my mom really focused on letting us pursue creative things we wanted to do and teaching us a lot of common sense things," Jade said. "I feel it's let me express my creativity a lot because I have so much more freedom to do so many more things."

She accepts she could do other things that offer a feeling of accomplishment but feels that creating an item that exists, especially a useful item, is the best.

"I love creating useful things. When I make a quilt and give it to someone, every time they use it they can think of me or they can feel warm and cozy and I love that about it," Jade said.

The young woman with a big heart and warm smile admits that, like the cobbler's children without shoes, she hasn't yet made a quilt for herself. She's been planning to make one for her bed for three years.

"I've been amassing fabric for it but it hasn't happened yet and I haven't sat down and planned it out yet," Jade said.

For more information: call or text 406-460-1220, handquiltedhappiness@gmail.com, Handquilted Happiness on Facebook and Etsy.