Kelly Elge crafts new creations from old blankets

Whitterbees
Kelly Elge
blankets

Whitterbees owner on process, the quilted path

  • Kelly Elge holds up the sign of her business, Whitterbees, a work in progress made of parts from used quilted blankets. Elge named her crafting enterprise after a niece who showed her how to make blankets into jackets.
    Kelly Elge holds up the sign of her business, Whitterbees, a work in progress made of parts from used quilted blankets. Elge named her crafting enterprise after a niece who showed her how to make blankets into jackets.

    Out in the fields near the Monroe Evangelical Free Church, in a house filled with memorabilia of the American Century, from rocket ships to political pins, is a woman who breathes new life into the used blankets by transforming them into clothing and crafts. 
    Kelly Elge has devoted herself to her new business, Whitterbees, where old blankets are turned into works of art. 
    “So it was basically taking old quilts and then making them into clothing or bags,” Elge said. “Some of them are so tattered I can’t even make clothing out of them, so then I’ll make bags or things like that. They’re not very big so I could make something out of a quilt that was pretty tattered and still have something fun.”
    Down in the basement, with a shelf stacked to the ceiling with sheets picked up from Goodwill, Elge has made these creations and released her imagination after a friend introduced her to the method at a craft show.

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