“I’ve been with IKEA for 16 years, and I think that’s bled into my crafting life. I’ve gotten to do so many creative things with them over those years,” said Genna Riggins, sewist, multi-media artist, and communication specialist for IKEA. Formerly a visual merchandiser, Genna’s fashion flair has found a vibrant long-term home with the Swedish home goods company. “I think IKEA lets us be ourselves, which is amazing,” she said.
Genna is known among her colleagues as “the girl with the skirts,” since she often uses IKEA pre-cut fabric or repurposes duvets into uniquely patterned skirts and pants. For a special gathering in Miami one year, she even made quilted sneakers to match. “Fabric’s fabric. As long as the weave is strong enough to hold up, it doesn’t matter if it’s a sheet,” said Genna.
Her sister taught her to sew at the young age of 8, sparking a hunger that carried Genna through her adult life. “I was always making something, whether it was sewing or beading or whatever I could get my hands on,” she said.
This love inspired her to attend college for interior design, a background which helped her land work at IKEA, where her long career has spanned everything from displays to web-based reality home makeover shows.
In 2023, at the urging of a friend who owned a quilting store in Houston, Genna attended her first meeting with the Houston Modern Quilt Guild. Although she wasn’t quilting at the time, curiosity pulled her in, and now she’s a regular member. “I love it. It’s a burst of inspiration every month to connect with people who are crafty and creative and to see what everyone’s working on,” said Genna, continuing to cite the skill of other members as motivation. “I don’t think I would have pushed myself as much if it weren’t for the guild because I’ve been so inspired to try new things,” she said. Genna is now the Vice President of Communications for the Houston Modern Quilt Guild.
The multi-media artist also takes a week off work every year to attend the International Quilt Festival, although she notes her colleagues are often confused that she uses PTO to go “look at quilts.” For Genna and many other attendees, quilt gatherings are so much more than that, and she always posts pictures of the artistic discoveries from the week. “I love being able to show people what’s being done and that it’s not just the traditional quilts. It’s so much more,” she said.
At the 2025 festival, Genna took a few classes to explore new-to-her techniques that encouraged her to challenge herself. She’s currently working on a collage quilted jacket, which forgoes the traditional quilting methods in favor of draping fabric and patterns within a planned shape to create the garment. “I can move things around, see how it visually looks, and check if it’s flowing well over a seam,” said Genna, noting with a laugh that she’s never one to take only a single challenge at a time. “I’ve never made a jacket pattern before. So that’ll be interesting as well. Let’s go with all new things.”
In addition to sewing and quilting, Genna does mixed media, resin, crochet, and gel printing. She transformed the master suite of the house she shares with her husband into the craft studio, since they both agreed the extra space and en suite bathroom would be best used for managing the clean up that comes with so many mediums. Her fabric storage is impressive, stacking nicely alongside her collection of vintage sewing machines. “I sew on a Singer 401A, which was actually my grandma’s sewing machine,” Genna said. She used to use a more modern machine, but when it died, she decided to switch to the heartier mechanical option and hasn’t looked back. And although her grandma didn’t sew at the same rate Genna does, she did make several family quilts that keep Genna and her husband cozy on the couch.
Genna has yet to make a complete quilt, but she aspires to someday, saving a quilt pattern she found in 2021 that she thinks would make a cool skirt. “I still have that pattern, and some of the guild members are like, ‘Oh, that’s ambitious for your first quilt,’” she said. “I was like, ‘Why not? What’s the worst that can happen?’ And I think that’s been my vision lately: ‘Why not try?’”
Mel Burke is a culture writer in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her husband and dog. When she’s not writing, she loves complaining about hiking and visiting cities with historic libraries. You can find her online everywhere as @melburkewrites.
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