Friday, October 23, 2026

After Eaton Fire Took Family’s Home, Essay Hall Teaches Others to Quilt Theirs

By THERESE EDU

Months after Essay Hall’s family lost its home in the Eaton Fire, Hall began re-creating the house as a quilted tapestry, starting from a couple of photographs taken before the fire.

Now Hall is showing others how to make their own. The Homebody Quilt Block Workshop, a free three-part series presented by the Pasadena bookstore Octavia’s Bookshelf at Remainders Creative Reuse on East Washington Boulevard, holds its last scheduled session Saturday, Oct. 24, and gives priority to people who lost homes in the fire, according to the bookstore’s event listing.

“I began with a couple of photos of the house before the fires,” Hall wrote in response to questions. “There are so many little details you take for granted, the way visual lines run through the architecture, the sheer number of potted plants my mom had decorated the outside of the house with.”

“Entering the project, the aspect that was in my head most was the colors,” Hall said. “I really loved the colors my mom had chosen to paint the house – the teal-ish color with white and off-black accents. It was unique and full of life.”

The finished piece was a birthday present for Hall’s mother. “It was a birthday present for my mom, so she showed it to everyone,” Hall said.

What people keep noticing surprised Hall: an embroidered tree, added at the end during a final all-nighter before the birthday. “People consistently comment on the tree, which I wasn’t expecting!” Hall said. “In my mind the super-detailed quilt piecing was more impressive than the decorative embroidered tree, though I do really love how the tree turned out.”

The class was not Hall’s idea. “I was asked to do it!” Hall said. “Octavia’s Bookshelf was putting on a series of workshops in the wake of the Eaton Fires, and Nikki had the idea that I should do a class teaching people to quilt their homes.”

Hall said the invitation gave pause. “I was hesitant because I taught music in a past life and, while I really loved teaching the students, it took so much energy out of me that I burned out,” Hall said.

“So, developing a workshop in a discipline where I have no formal training was a daunting concept,” Hall said. “I’ve really been trying to frame it in my head not as formal teaching, but as simply sharing my process with others.”

The workshop centers on Foundation Paper Piecing, a quilting method in which fabric is sewn onto a printed paper pattern in numbered order and the paper is then torn away, allowing sharp angles and fine detail such as rooflines, windows and porches. Participants draft a pattern of their own house, sew it and finish it with embroidered foliage and details, according to the listing.

Hall said much of the first session went to learning the sewing machines and the second to the paper-piecing technique itself. “Well… it might end up being more than 3 sessions!” Hall said, adding: “I’m not too worried about finishing the houses during the workshop, as long as folks have the tools and knowledge to finish the project on their own time.”

Hall said a lot of what participants raise about their houses is some version of ‘my house is/was kind of boring.’ “Even if they don’t see it yet, I know their finished quilted house will be super cute – they always are,” Hall said.

Asked what a quilted house can hold that a photograph cannot, Hall pointed to the time spent making it. “The many hours you spend with it, thinking about it, holding it in your hands – it gains meaning during that time,” Hall said.

“A quilt is something associated with warm cozy feelings – it’s something your grandma made, something that gets donated to families after crises, something that literally keeps you warm through the cold dark months of the year,” Hall said.

The Eaton Fire broke out the evening of Jan. 7, 2025, near Altadena Drive and Midwick Drive and destroyed 9,419 structures, according to Cal Fire’s finalized count.

Octavia’s Bookshelf, named for Pasadena native Octavia Butler, focuses on BIPOC authors and has hosted other fire-related programs, including a June event with Désirée Zamorano, who lived in Altadena for 26 years until the fire.

Remainders, a nonprofit creative-reuse store with an upstairs sewing studio, supplies the workshop’s materials.

The final scheduled session runs 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at Remainders Creative Reuse, 787 E. Washington Blvd., Suite 101, Pasadena. The workshop is free, and the listing says basic machine sewing is enough. The listing says more workshops may be added if there is enough demand. Information is at octaviasbookshelf.com/events.