Handmade quilts · Metro Detroit · Clients nationwide
Umi
A personal studio, rooted in care
Kecia launched her quilting business, Umi’s Comfort, in 2003. As part of her creative development process, she began drawing various images, then (seemingly) inexplicably figured out how to reproduce them in quilts. About 50 quilts in, while down south for a family reunion, her work was finally noticed by a cousin — one of her grandmother’s nieces — who offered her some quilting pieces called tops to use in her work.
Kecia also has a sister who is a seamstress that designs and makes clothing. Kecia, nor her sister, were told of their rich lineage in quilting and sewing until Kecia had demonstrated she had developed the skill on her own. The quilting art spans six generations of both of Kecia’s grandparents on her mother’s side of the family — back to her great-grandmother’s great, great grandmother — as well as sisters, nieces, aunts and cousins.
For most customer orders, they are special mementos that may provide comfort to a graduate going away to college during their first extended separation from their mother. This is how she came up with the business name and tag line: “Umi’s Comfort: Where comfort is always a perfect gift.”
Ultimately, Kecia is looking to train women committed to becoming socially impactful business owners. While Kecia continues to create memories for others, she strives to give back by teaching and serving as an inspiration to others.
At The Quilting Table
Thread, pins, and cloth are not abstractions here — they are how love becomes legible. Whether the day calls for piecing something new or listening to an old quilt tell you where it hurts, the table stays unhurried.
That steadiness is what clients say they feel long before the quilt is finished — someone on the other side of the work who takes their story seriously.
Why this work still matters
We live in a world that rewards speed, automation, and the disposable — including, sometimes, the way we mark what we love. None of that is evil; much of it is simply the texture of modern life. But it leaves a hunger for things that cannot be rushed: touch, patience, and the unmistakable evidence that another human being stayed with a problem until it became beautiful.
That is the space I choose to work in. Artificial intelligence and factory precision have their place; they do not replace the decision to pair a faded shirt with a scrap of wedding lace because someone once wore both. Handmade work is not anti-technology — it is pro-human. It says that some chapters deserve to be held in cloth, not only in a feed or a file.
When you ask me to make a quilt — or bring an heirloom for careful restoration — you are asking for slowness on purpose: for care in every stitch, for judgment honed over decades, and for a piece that can hold grief, joy, or the ordinary Tuesday kind of love with equal dignity.
If that resonates, I would be honored to hear what you are carrying — and to help you give it a shape worth keeping.
Experience and reach
- 30+ years of handmade quilt work — new quilts, heirlooms, and restoration
- Detroit studio rooted in Metro Detroit, with deep ties to local families and makers
- U.S. clients coast to coast — distance handled with the same care as a next-door (project):
When you are ready to speak in fabric
Share the occasion, the timeline that fits your life, and anything you already know about color or cloth. I will respond with warmth, honest questions, and a clear sense of what comes next — never with pressure.
Request a Custom Quote