A modern quilting studio at Eastworks
Located on the second floor of Eastworks, Hoop & Bee has been a vibrant and safe home for quilters in Western Mass since 2023.
Founded by quilter and educator Jessa Tower, Hoop & Bee was created with a clear vision: to make quilting approachable, inclusive, and fully accessible—free from the barriers that so often keep people out of creative spaces.
The studio provides a warm, welcoming environment with a thoughtfully curated selection of materials for purchase and student use, and offers a wide range of classes from quilt-alongs to garment creation. Hoop & Bee also provides custom quilting, binding, and longarm services with a two-week turnaround. Original quilts and small-scale textile works are also available for purchase in the studio.
At the heart of Hoop & Bee are Jessa and Rachael, whose shared vision is to remove obstacles to creative expression—especially for people new to quilting and those who have felt excluded from traditional craft spaces.
Quilting 101
Jessa explains that quilting today encompasses a range of styles–far beyond what many people may expect.
“When someone thinks of a quilt, they’re most likely picturing a traditional style: dusty browns, deep roses, maybe soft mustards or dresden blues, often in a repeating motif. That’s traditional quilting—and it’s still very much alive today, practiced by incredibly talented makers.
“But there’s also improvisational quilting, which doesn’t follow a pattern and is a very creative, liberating style of making. And then there’s modern quilting, which is where I fall as a maker. Modern quilts tend to use bold solid colors, geometric shapes, empty space, and lean toward either minimalism or maximalism.”
For Jessa, the practice of quilting isn’t about perfection–it’s about learning, making, and enjoying the process.
“Something I repeat often in class is: not every quilt has to be an heirloom. Not everything you make needs to be the piece your grandchildren fight over. Let your creative work just be something that brings you joy. Let it be something you learn from. Don’t be precious about it.
“Every student who’s come through here probably leaves with my voice stuck in their head saying, ‘care way less.’ There’s this really toxic idea out there that anything we make should be perfect and free of mistakes in order to be ‘valuable’ or worthwhile—and I try to actively fight that. Your love of something shouldn’t depend on how perfect it is. It should be about how fun it was to make, how much you love the colors, or the joy of sitting in a room with people, laughing and making something with your hands.”
Finding a place at Eastworks
A shared commitment to accessibility was one of the biggest reasons Jessa and Rachael chose Eastworks as the home for Hoop & Bee.
“When we started looking at spaces, I needed to view it through the lens of access,” Jessa said. “Is this accessible to the widest range of people who want to learn? In a lot of places, the answer was: yes, except… And that ‘except’ really matters. So we spent a long time saving and searching, building toward a classroom in a space that could adapt to people with non-normative needs. We knew we wanted something expansive, flexible, and intentionally inclusive.”
Eastworks stood out not just for its physical accessibility, but for its values.
Jessa gestures to the longarm machine stationed prominently in the studio, “And honestly, this thing is huge. And I need room on all sides, so we genuinely needed a lot of space.” But it wasn’t just about dimensions and logistics. It was about the feel of the space too. Rachael, who was equally involved in every step of the process, remembers the moment clearly. “We looked at a bunch of other units, even upstairs,” Rachael said. “They might’ve worked on paper, but the energy just wasn’t right. Then we walked into this one, and we were like, ‘This is our studio. We’re taking this one. This feels right for us.’”
Rachael was instrumental in transforming the room into a true creative haven: choosing the paint colors, shaping the atmosphere, and helping define the visual identity that makes Hoop & Bee feel so warm, comfortable, and inviting today.
Creating access to quilting in Western Mass
From the start, Jessa and Rachael envisioned a space where anyone could walk in and start sewing–no equipment, no experience, no barriers.
“My goal has always been that somebody can just get off the bus, come upstairs, and start sewing —with nothing but a water bottle,” Jessa says.
With a background in HR and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), Jessa brought a strong access-centered lens to every part of the studio’s design—from layout to equipment to class structure. Supporting that is Rachael’s decades of experience providing strategy for the creation of inclusive and ADA compliant websites, digital applications, and printed materials.
“Here’s the cool thing about quilting: the average age of a quilter is 65. That means a lot of new tools on the market are for aging bodies. They’re made to help with grip strength, tremors, mobility, motor control, and they’re becoming more and more available. That makes it easier to build a studio where disability-forward tools are the norm, not an afterthought.”
Each workspace at Hoop & Bee is fully equipped with a sewing machine, cutting materials, fabric, and iron—so quilters can work comfortably without needing to move around the room to gather supplies.
In 2024, Hoop & Bee received a grant facilitated by MALGBTCC that helped expand the studio’s electrical capacity—making the space even more navigable for people in wheelchairs or with mobility aids like walkers or canes.
“Students say they love the vibe of the space, but they love the usability of the space too. More importantly, they share that they feel physically comfortable here. Which has always been the highest priority.
“There shouldn’t be conditions on creativity. Making and creating is not conditional. This has always been about having a space for people who want to be in a community that shares values around making and creating with fibers.”
Making with Pride
Each year, Hoop & Bee chooses a limited color palette to guide their studio quilting projects—a creative constraint that also brings cohesion and intention to the studio’s work.
“It’s something that has to resonate with both of us,” Jessa says. “The palette needs to be flexible enough to work across a variety of patterns and quilting styles, but focused enough to challenge us creatively. It helps shape everything we make.”
The 2024 palette emerged from a moment that blended personal meaning with creative instinct. Jessa was wearing a graphic tee from Bad News Wares that read: “Respect my existence or expect my resistance.”
“We were going through all these color swatches and trying to find what matches us, what felt right,” Jessa recalls. “And it was Rachael who looked at the shirt and said, ‘That’s it. That’s the palette’. And she matched it perfectly.”
It was a perfect call. Rachael translated the shirt’s bold, defiant color and spirit into a stunning set of fabrics that were rich, expressive, and deeply rooted in Hoop & Bee’s values. The resulting “Resistance Palette” became a creative and emotional anchor – showing up in dozens of quilts throughout the entire studio.
Quilting community
Hoop & Bee regularly offers Sewing Machine Confidence Builder—a non-project based class designed to help students understand how a sewing machine works and how to use it safely and confidently. These classes are consistently popular and often waitlisted.
In response to demand, two additional workspaces will be added to the studio in the Fall, allowing more participants to join each class. Expanded class offerings are also on the horizon—including more garment-making and skill workshops.
Jessa reflects on the different ways students find connection through quilting.
“Some students come in with a specific skill they want to learn, and that’s their focus. But others come in looking for more—they’re asking, ‘What’s next? Who else is here? How can I be more involved?”
“The more workspaces and classes we can add, the more opportunities to continue our connections and relationships within the community” she concludes.
In case you are curious: gender, New Deal propaganda, and quilts
Jessa is passionate about challenging the romanticized idea that quilting is only a group activity for women. This is a vision we have that is shaped in large part by historical propaganda and was never entirely accurate – or the whole picture.
“Many people picture quilting as a communal activity where women gather to sew together. But much of that imagery was carefully crafted and staged as part of a larger cultural and governmental campaign to promote domesticity and self-sufficiency during the New Deal. Women were encouraged to produce handmade goods, often portraying women quilting together as a symbol of community and traditional values.
“In truth, those quilting groups were often specific to church or family units rather than broad, diverse communities coming together. This idea stuck and left us with a narrow perception that quilting must be a female, group-based pursuit.
“That idea can be limiting and even harmful, because quilting is a creative practice that can take many forms. It can be solitary or social, traditional or modern, done by anyone regardless of gender or background. There isn’t a single ‘right’ way to make a quilt or to identify as a quilter.
“It also invites us to rethink the traditional milestones around giving quilts, which have often been very heteronormative: weddings, births, anniversaries. But what if your milestones look different? What if those typical markers don’t reflect your life? Quilting opens space for honoring all kinds of journeys and celebrations that are all deeply meaningful in their own right.”
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Suite 209, Second Floor
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