How does one start down the path of a quilting fiend? Well, I guess it would be by answering the call for help. I was having a bad day and my headache wasn't making it any better. I was out running some errands and dreaming of getting home and climbing into my tempurpedic adjustable bed of deliciousness. Well that dream went into the dustbin of life when I received a text to please oh please bring my sewing machine to the church to help the yw sew some quilts. It took me a few minutes to answer the txt. I was driving so I figured that bought me some time to decide how it was that I was going to say no. I knew I needed to find a way to pull myself together and say yes, but I wasn't ready to let go of my dream just yet. Well, I finally decided to text my response of coming to the rescue when I received a phone call- this person must have had a feeling of my wanting to say no. She explained that she really really really needed me to come. Ok Ok, dream officially dead.
Here's the thing about the Lord. He doesn't bless you for doing the right thing immediately. That would require no faith. No step into the dark. You have to say yes while you feel like crap. You can't wait until you don't feel like crap to say yes. You don't even feel better when you get in the car. Not while driving over. Not while unloading all your junk out of the car to traipse in. It's not until you sit down and start helping that you start to feel better. Sometimes this gift lasts the entire time, sometimes just long enough to get you back home, and sometimes you're completely cured until the next time. . This time it got me back home before I felt like crap again. (How many times can I say crap in this post? a lot!)
Ok. Onto the quilts. I haven't made a quilt in 19 years. I made a quilt for our queen size bed when I was pregnant with Jared. I didn't really know what I was doing at the time and it was really difficult to get it machine quilted so I just never had the desire to try again. Well, these quilts that were being made were strip quilts. They were going together in lightning speed. They were looking awesome. I needed to try and make one. I talked to the woman in charge of the evening and a quilting guru and found out all I needed to know. I also decided to ask if I could take home one of the extra kits and offered to pay money for it. I knew if I took it home I would start working on it right away and if I had to hunt down a kit on my own it just might not happen. She refused to let me pay for the kit and I was ready for my new adventure. ( I baked a pie with peaches from my tree as a thank you to her)
Well, that initial quilt went together in 2 days. Including getting a back and batting for it and quilting it together. I had achieved success and I was hungry for more. I found some fabric on clearance at walmart and set about doing 2 more quilts without having any idea who the recipients of the quilts would be. That's when the idea of making them for Christmas came. The first one I made I was specifically making with the intention of giving it to Jordyn and I realized that all my kids needed one. I'm always looking for meaningful gifts. A way I can give a piece of myself to someone and this was the perfect avenue for that. I decided to branch out and take all of Nate's old work shirts and finally make a quilt out of them like I had been planning but never really had the desire to actually do. I was on a roll, so why not? After I made the quilt he said "why would I want a quilt with that logo, I hate that company and don't want a reminder of it." Oh great! I had even put camouflage on the back so it was "business on the front and party on the back" I had messed up on the stitching around the boarder because I didn't know that when your needle dulls it starts to skip stitches. I was afraid that my machine was broken and would be gone for weeks so I just kept going with the janky stitch so the quilt would be done before I took it in for repairs. I loath unfinished projects. Thank goodness for the Internet and lots of people wanting to make videos for people like me. All I needed to do was replace my needle. I wish all of life's fixes were that easy. It ended up being perfect having the janky stitching considering the hated log. We are calling it the "overcoming trials " quilt! hahaha
I just keep ordering more and more fabric and making more and more quilts. It just kind keeps snowballing. I keep adding more and more people to my list of needing a quilt. I've made 12 now. We had a debate for awhile about which direction to make the stripes go. In the end I only ended up with Ethan and Jared's quilt with the strips going vertical. It's harder to control the pattern and you feel like you aren't accomplishing anything for a longer time making it that way, so I just went back to the horizontal. One day I will try on the diagonal, but not yet. That will be too time consuming.
My friend Jolene was seeing all the quilts I was making and teased that she wanted one and gave me the colors she wanted. They came for balloon fiesta so I hustled and got one put together before she came and gave it to her for her birthday. She is actually the first person that has received their quilt and gets to use it before Christmas.
My kids keep trying to talk me into giving them their quilts. They would sneak off with them and give them test runs. The pic above was us trying to decide which way we like the stripes going with the same pattern so we could compare apples to apples. Watson is also being buried by the fabric. He always has to be right next to me or touching me- most of the time he gets in the way of me pressing the sewing peddle.
There's Jo with her quilt. It was hard to see one of my babies leave, but it went to a very good home where it will be loved.
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