Home Run: A Quilt About Hope, Healing, and Love
- Jen Wagner
- Apr 9, 2025
- 2 min read
Home Run is a quilt born out of love—hard-won, healing love.
After leaving an abusive marriage, I never imagined I’d find myself walking down the aisle again. I had closed that chapter in my mind… until I met Maverick. From the start, he made me feel safe, supported, and cherished in a way I hadn’t known before. It didn’t take long for me to realize I had found something extraordinary—and I was the one who proposed! He said yes, well actually, he said, "That would be lovely."
I designed the Home Run quilt during the World Series of Major League Baseball. My husband is a huge baseball fan, so I moved my sewing machine downstairs and stitched up the quilt on the pattern cover while we watched the games together. It was during those quiet, cozy nights that this pattern came to life—and the name felt obvious: I hit a home run when I met Maverick.
So when Benartex asked me to make a quilt using one of their basic fabric lines for a charitable cause, I knew exactly what to make. I created a Home Run quilt to donate to SafeNest, a local organization that provides a safe haven for victims of domestic violence. This pattern, to me, represents strength, second chances, and love after loss.
I used all 25 colors from Nancy Halvorsen’s gorgeous Whisper Weave fabric line by Benartex, weaving the shades throughout the quilt to echo the subtle texture of the fabric and the woven stories of survival and resilience.
Even more special? Members of my local guild—the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild—joined me in donating quilts to SafeNest as well. I was so touched by their generosity and so proud to be part of a quilting community that shows up with open hearts and open hands.
On the back of the quilt, I wrote words of comfort—the ones I needed to hear during my hardest days. It’s not easy to talk about my past but I share it in hopes that it reaches someone who needs to hear: You are not alone. You are worthy of love and safety. And healing is possible.
If you’d like to make your own version of the Home Run quilt—whether for yourself or someone who needs to feel wrapped in hope—you can get the pattern or a kit and design your quilt with the free coloring pages with the links below.
If you or anyone else would like to support SafeNest directly, you can make a donation here: safenest.org/how-to-help/donate
Warmth and Love,
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