One More Quilt: A Story of Life
Chapter Two: The 1960s

On June 22, 1957, Jennifer Stacy Piscitelli was born to Donald and Gail Piscitelli in Bridgeport, Connecticut. That was I. We lived in Connecticut for one year. My mother divorced my father and, one year later, married Michel Nachin and moved to Santa Ana, California. My sister Heidi Victoria was born in 1959 just a year after we settled in California.

My mother sewed soft red Christmas pajamas for us in 1961. Pictured here are the three of us matching girls! My brother Shane Michel was born in 1963.

When I was five years old, Michel adopted me and my name was changed to Genevieve Nadine Nachin. This was a time of change for me. The courtroom appeared huge and the judge's desk loomed way above me. The judge asked me questions and I remember being sassy and full of life with my hair up high in a ponytail swishing it back and forth.

View Full Screen

I remember my mother sewing on her Singer machine. I was seven years old when she made my International Doll quilt. I truly loved all the different dolls represented from around the world. Heidi was five years old and her Story Book quilt is really sweet. Shane was one year old and he was always part of our playtime. I am holding Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy that my grandmother Ethel, whom we call Nana, made and sent to us. It was shortly after these quilts were made, that we packed up and moved to Medford, Oregon.

When I was in first grade at Medford School, I asked the teacher if I could teach the class one day. I probably pestered her terribly, but one day she said I could. I had it all planned out. My Dad worked for a printing company, so our family always had lots of rolls of all different sizes of paper around. I gathered all that I needed for a class project and brought it to school. The project was for each student to draw a picture of themselves in the circle paper and glue it to the center of a pastel-colored cupcake baking paper. I had cut outs of green leaves and stems ready and everyone made a flower. I loved being in charge! I walked up and down the aisles, just like the teacher, and looked at their creations. What a great feeling to be in command of the class!

My mother was great at making hand-drawn paper dolls and I recall using the Sears Catalog and cutting out pictures of furniture and lamps and rugs and gluing them into a scrap book to make various rooms for the paper dolls. There were discarded wallpaper books that many paper doll clothes were made out of. I loved the various textures of the wallpaper. This was a wonderful way to continue the creative juices in me.

View Full Screen

View Full Screen

View Full Screen

Our family of five packed up and moved from Oregon to Connecticut in 1965 traveling by car across the country.

We lived in Hamden, Connecticut for a little while at my grandmother's Victorian brick house.

We went to Sochaux, France for one year when I was eight years old and in second grade. My grandmother, Mama Reine taught me how to knit. I was very curious and she handed me knitting needles and some yarn. The blue and orange striped piece in the middle of the blanket is my stitches. Sometime later, after we left France and settled in Cheshire, Connecticut, Mama Reine completed the blanket and sent it to us.

View Full Screen

My mother's sewing machine made the trip from Oregon to Connecticut and I remember her sewing at the dining room table in Cheshire, Connecticut. I learned to sew on this machine. I made many little Barbie doll clothes. In seventh grade, I made a red corduroy a-line skirt in Home-Economics class. In eighth grade, I made matching blue and white flannel pajamas for us.

During my high school years in Cheshire, I learned from a friend how to crochet. I crocheted big loopy vests for everyone one Christmas. I also crocheted little stuffed animals, elephants, tigers, and lions, and sold them at a convenience store in Wallingford for five dollars each. I also was very much into macrame and made earrings and necklaces and sold them at the school store. Little tiny knots interspersed with wooden and ceramic beads, these items sold quickly.

View Full Screen

When my mother died in July 1995, I wondered where the sewing machine was because it wasn't in her apartment. In September 1995, I went to Paier Art College in Hamden, Connecticut, where my mother had been the librarian and made a speech for the students and faculty about her illness of lung cancer. When I was getting ready to leave, the receptionist had some things that belonged to my mother and there it was - her sewing machine - I recognized the green carrying case right away. A student had borrowed it over the summer and had just returned it. How lucky I am to have this sewing machine!

View Full Screen