I come from a heritage of quilting, both from my family and from my church affiliation. I spent years flitting from one craft to another, which ran the gamut (tole painting, china painting, counted cross stitch, knitting, crocheting, needlepoint...), well, you get the picture. I would be passionate about yet another new venture, and had a husband who never complained once, not about all the new supplies I needed, about all the storage it would probably take up...never once (thanks, Mark--you're the best!). But eventually I would get bored and look for something else.
Finally I thought, why not embrace my heritage and learn to quilt? The best decision I ever made. So my good friend, Dotty, drafted out a very simple pattern, double four-patch, and I agonized over the fabric choices. Only four of them, but I spent hours running from one store to another, to make sure they were perfect. I started it in August 1994. She taught me how to hand quilt in a hoop, and I finished it in March 1996. By that time, I was working on several other quilts and had quite a stash started.
I have a lot of quilt tops in the works, but by a series of strange events, the last quilt I have actually finished was for my second pattern to be published, called Jammin' Jelly.
It's a super easy quilt to make, great for those times when you need something in a hurry.So what have I learned since August 1994? That I have never once become bored with quilting. It continually fascinates me and fulfills my need to be creative. I enjoy nearly every aspect of quilting (with the exception of putting the quilt sandwich together for quilting....), and fabric selection is probably my favorite part. I enjoy taking time with complex quilt piecing, and wish I could learn how to machine quilt my own quilts. Quilting has gotten me through a really sad and trying time in my life. It is tactile and colorful. I have made good friends specifically because of quilting, and that group of friends is growing through blogging, and it doesn't even matter that I probably won't meet many of these new friends in person. There is a community out there that I am part of and quilting continues to enrich my life.
