We’ve been there, too. Let us help.
Whether you’re going through family heirlooms or items from the loss of a loved one, we know it can be difficult to decide how to handle them. We are here to walk alongside you on this journey.
Meet Lezleigh
Lezleigh Kleibrink considers herself to be a tactile storyteller and a memory maker. Her mom says she was born with scissors in one hand and construction paper in the other, and she hasn’t stopped creating since!
A native of Katy, Texas, Lezleigh grew up in a small community with her mom and two brothers. She was surrounded by a creative environment from her involvement in church choir and ministries, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, local sports, and showing cattle and market animals. Through the leaders in her extracurricular activities, Lezleigh gained invaluable lessons and enrichment opportunities. After graduating from Texas A&M, she and her husband, Kevin, moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area and were blessed with their son, Matthew. She used her time at home with him to focus on others–becoming active in church ministries, serving as a State Coordinator for MOMS Club, teaching preschool, and looking for ways to continue furthering her creative talents. Lezleigh offered services to create scrapbooks for others and began to design quilts as gifts for friends and family. As this love of fabric and thread became stronger, she was blessed to work with two local quilt stores and began offering edge-to-edge quilting services to the public, as well as making memory bears and quilts.
After suffering the loss of her brother Casey and other loved ones, living through the pandemic, and watching her son Matthew survive stage 4 lymphoma, Lezleigh realized just how precious and short life is. Her family made the decision to sell their home in north Texas and take a chance to move to Nashville, TN, where they felt their hearts were calling them. They know this was the best decision they have ever made, and Lezleigh is excited to bring Sew Many Memories to life here in Music City!
How we started
In 2004, Lezleigh’s younger brother, Marine Corporal Casey Owens, was ambushed while serving in Iraq. He lost both of his legs and suffered a traumatic brain injury when his humvee ran over a double stacked IED. He battled his wounds, externally and internally, for 10 years, and in October 2014 lost his war to suicide in order to end his pain. Lezleigh was left with the immense grief of trying to cope with the loss of her brother, who she considered her “child”. While going through Casey’s things, she found a shirt from his participation in the Vancouver Paralympics and made a bear out of it. It gave her great comfort to hold the bear close, feeling like she was hugging Casey at the same time.
At the suggestion of her grief counselor, she started to focus on how she could use her talents to help others on their own grief journey. Lezleigh has always sewn, and while quilting one day she saw a police department was in need of stuffed animals to give to children in moments of crisis. Along with her friend, Kim, she designed a bear pattern that was easy to make, and she and her quilting community created several to donate. Friends began to see what she was making and asked Lezleigh if she could make bears or quilts for them from a loved one’s clothes. It was a way for others to manage their grief or usefully keep family memorabilia. She quickly realized how she could use her love of quilting to help others, and Sew Many Memories became a reality!
Behind the Seams
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