Quilt Projects

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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

How I Started Quilting (And Where That's Led Me Today)

I don't come from a family of quilters. Matter of fact, I don't ever recall seeing a handmade quilt until I was seventeen years old. At the time I was a senior in high school and dating a really nice guy. One night he was asked by his mother to deliver something to his grandmother who lived on the other side of town. I rode along with him and when we arrived, we were invited in for a little visit. His grandmother had been sitting in her living room doing some hand quilting. Since I'd been sewing all of my own clothes for a few years, I was very interested in the construction of her quilt. She asked if I'd like to see some of her other completed quilts, and I was blown away by the beauty of them.



I remember little about the details of the five or six she showed me but one two-color quilt has stuck in my mind all these years. At the time I knew nothing about the different quilt patterns so I don't even recall the pattern the green and white quilt was done in. But the contrast between the rich, dark green and the white was gorgeous. She told me that she presented each of her grandchildren with a quilt when he or she married. Okay, I gotta admit, the thought did flash through my mind wondering if there might be the remote possibility I would one day have that stunning green and white quilt as my own!

Of course, 'twas not to be . . . her grandson and I parted ways a few months later, but I've always remembered her lovely quilts.



In college, I took up knitting and for the next thirty years, that was my handwork of choice. Then about fifteen years ago, our local yarn shop began offering a series of classes on different types of handwork: hardanger, knitting, needlepoint, quilting . . . I took them all because I love using my hands to create something. As soon as I took the quilting class, I knew I had discovered something that really (and I mean REALLY) appealed to me on many levels.



It incorporated my love of fabric, my sewing skill, my creative design ideas, my need to do something that produced a useful, tangible product.

To be continued . . .

P.S. Many more images of my quilting pieces have been added to the Slideshow in the last couple of days. Check them out when you have time.

2 comments:

Chicken Mama said...

Wouldn't it have been neat if that grandmother had KNOWN the seed she planted? Good story, Mama.

Mama Pea Quilts said...

Thinking of your above comment, what an illustrative example of how we may never know what we do or say can have a life-long influence on another person.

(How I'd love to know where that green and white quilt is today!)