Quilting

I've started quilting. Since I've sewn since I was 2 years old, it's been wonderful getting back to it after putting it aside for the past 20 years. I've finished my first quilt top and it looks like a blind person on drugs pieced it. I have not put a backing on it and quilted it or have it quilted. I did finish my second quilt and I'm more proud of it than almost everything I have done creatively in my life.

I have so many quilts in my head. I've watched others quilt. I've watched television shows on quilting. I've read books on quilting. Nothing prepared me for quilting. There are so many little steps from idea to the finished quilt if one wants a decent quilt as the finished product. I guess that is one of the reasons I'm loving quilting. If something is mastered quickly and easily by myself, I lose interest rapidly. Working in clay captured my interest as one can never stop learning and honing their skills working in clay. This is the same with quilting.

I did work this past couple of weeks on my quilting. I was working on quilt #1. Then, I didn’t know what fabric I was going to use for the sashings and borders plus the back. So, I thought, if I work on quilt #2 and I have some fabric left over, I could use it for quilt #1. Next, I had these neat scraps left over from quilt #2 and decided to make some potholders from the scraps. Well, when I got 4 potholder tops done (before I made them into potholders), they were SO NEAT that I decided to make a few more and make it into a quilt instead of potholders, thus quilt #3. Ok, I’m rocking along and find I need a piece of fabric 3”x6” to finish this quilt #3. Therefore I go to the fabric store to get the little piece of fabric and they have exactly what I need for quilt #1 and it’s on sale. But wait! They have a huge selection of fabric on sale! Not only at 50% off but an additional 20% off my total purchase. Ok, I came home with fabric to finish Quilts 1, 2, and 3 AND fabric for 4 more quilts!! (This does not include the fabric I purchased from an estate sale that gave me some absolutely beautiful fabric for approximately 30 or more quilts.) Thus goes the way I create. I'm still in the process of putting all three quilt tops together. I have to admit that I've been back to the fabric store 2 more times bringing home again, stacks and stacks of fabric. When I'm not working in the mornings or taking care of my granddaughters/housework in the afternoons, I'm planning out my next quilts in my head and drawing them on paper. I'm going to have some really beautiful quilts to pass down or give as gifts to my family. Since I already will have to be 92 to finish projects I've started.....I believe I will have to add some more years to finish these quilts.

Truely, among my friends, we have a saying: 'She who dies with the most craft crap wins!'