Unbeknownst to many people I am a quilter. Not by profession, strictly a hobby.
I am not trained, nor do I belong to a Quilters guild, or club, this is strictly therapeutic. I feel no need to have my work exhibited, or critiqued, or criticized, or analyzed. This is an outlet and one that is totally mine and a reflection of me. My children will be the only ones who ever benefit, if that's what you call it, from this happy endeavor.
I stumbled upon this by accident years ago.
I like to sew, but lost interest in making my own clothes as I got older, and my body changed, and I was no longer a perfect size 10. Patterns required more alteration, and I found I could go buy what I wanted for so much less time and hassle, and yes, even cheaper; go figure.
One of the aspects of Home Ec. class that I enjoyed in school was the 6 wk segment on decorating, and learning to sew accents for your home. This is something I appreciated when we moved into our first apt. I made curtains, pillows, etc. long before it was so vogue to do so.
I began my journey into quilting making baby quilts for friends, dear friends, who's little's were going to be as important to me as my own family. I loved it when I found out that those little's loved the quilts I made, carrying them everywhere, and using them till they actually wore out. I loved fabric, and the feel and textures it brought, and I loved making things that were useful to people.
Over the years I have made dozens of baby quilts, and even started making flannel receiving blankets for little's that were larger than the ones you bought in the store and was told again and again how wonderful the bigger ones were for those little ones.
I was hooked. Doing something I loved, and being rewarded by hearing how helpful and useful what I made was to folks. It was a perfect fit.
I never ventured into larger quilts as I didn't have a quilting frame, they took up a lot of room. If I made them at all, I tied them. like the one I made for my sister.
Back seven or eight years ago, I received a phone call from the Pastor at our church. The fire marshal had been out on inspection and all the quilting things from the former quilters group at our church was going to have to go. If I didn't want it and come get it, it was going to the dump.
Back when my children were little, and we started attending our church, there were a group of older ladies who gathered one Tues of every month and made quilts to be auctioned off at the churches university in Olathe for scholarships. As each of those ladies grew too old to continue the tradition, their materials, notions, and quilting frame sat idle in a back room at the church.
I loaded up and went out to get all the totes - 8 of them - full of fabric, kits, cut out quilt pieces, scissors, tape measures, marking pens, pins, instructions, and on and on and on. I sorted, and sifted and cleaned out and after giving away all the fabrics that were not appropriate for quilts, had 5 totes left.
It might have been overwhelming to some, but I was like a alcoholic in a liquor store. I was drowning in fabric, ideas, and materials to sew and quilt till the day I died; literally.
I found a quilt kit with the top that needed to be embroidered, but no floss; they had used it on something else. It was a tree of life, that I knew by looking at it would be beautiful in the right colors. I bought floss and began the process. I found the perfect backing material in a Jacobean print of muted tones, that literally sat for years waiting for me to finish embroidering the top. In between I made baby quilts, even a rather complicated one for our first grandchild.
I would embroidery in the evenings when the light was not good, and quilt during the day on my little embroidery hoop.
As I completed projects they began to stack up on the king size bed in Audrey's bedroom. A baby quilt, two regular size quilts, even a bedspread.
On my 60th birthday Audrey surprised me with a quilting frame. Not just any quilting frame, a adjustable, tilting, fancy, expensive quilting frame that I had been drooling over. Now I had no excuse not to finish those quilts.
My first project was the Tree of Life quilt. The quilting lines were printed on it, and I figured it was a sure fire way to get off to a good start, and I was right. It was a job, but it was enjoyable, and I loved working on it. It didn't seem to take any time at all.
As I worked on it, I realized what I had been missing by having a quilting frame. I was delighted to be able to see my work in such a broad scope, or at least what I thought of as broad.
It afforded me such a bigger picture than the little hoop that I had used in the past.
I worked diligently, and the entire quilt was finished in a matter of months.
The next project was one of a little more complicated nature.
It was a Texas Star quilt in red's, white's and blues, in pieces, partially put together. As I began to look at it more closely, and lay it out to see what else I might need, I became acutely aware that I would have to rip out what had been sewn and start completely over. The stitches were uneven and puckered, and it was lacking some diamonds, plus, what was I going to fill in the corners and middle sections with?
As I began to scour for fabric, I found exactly what I needed, and purchased the backing and batting to get started.
It has turned out great! Just what I wanted, I've just taken it off the frame, so am allowing it to rest a bit, but the binding is already cut and I will have that done shortly.
In the mean time while I was working on this, I made a miniature quilt out of some dutch doll blocks that my mother made when she was just a little girl. It turned out beautiful as well, and will be the perfect addition to the wall in my office.
This is an abbreviated version of my quilting exploits thus far. But I have to say that with each project finished, I am feeling more accomplished, and satisfied.
