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Quilters' Guild of East Texas © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

Last updated: 5 January 2020

Jennifer Rapacki

January Program

The PC revolution was just beginning when Jennifer Rapacki entered the work world and she quickly found herself drawn to this new area. Her knack for quickly understanding new computer software and concepts led to diverse experiences in Computer Information Systems. She has worked with a wide variety of MAC, UNIX & Windows system software and hardware. She graduated from Purdue University in 1979 with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and then added an MBA from the University of Phoenix in 1985.

Jennifer left corporate America in 1999 having spent 20 years working as a computer engineer for major corporations:  Westinghouse Electric, Lockheed Martin and Walt Disney Feature Animation. She then started helping small businesses with Web Site Design and Computer Consulting.

Beyond her technical skills, one of Jennifer's loves has always been working with fabric. She worked part-time as a Freelance Educator for Husqvarna Viking for several years (2002-2003) which allowed her to start merging her computer and sewing skills.   In addition, she worked as a part-time scan tech/educator for Unique Patterns from 2003 to 2006. 

Learning to sew as a child, Jennifer has been working with fabric for over 40 years. Her skills include couture sewing, tailoring, quilting, and home dec. Because Photoshop is the primary design tool that Jennifer uses for web design, she also started using Photoshop as a design tool for her quilts.  With Adobe's release of Photoshop Elements for home use, Jennifer started teaching Photoshop Elements to Quilters along with Electric Quilt which she uses to design block based quilts.

After her own quilt guild asked her to speak about what she was doing with inkjet printing on fabric at home and Electric Quilt, she started offering her lecture about Modern Technology for Quilters to other quilt guilds. Not everything Jennifer does in quilting involves using a computer tool :-). She teaches non-tech classes which include the Weave That! series using a fabric weaving technique, tatting and a new technique, Peekaboo Fabric Reverse Applique, where she adapted a couture button hole technique, Spanish snap buttonhole, to quilt making and designed the acrylic Peekaboo Fabric Tools™.