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quilts are a long time love of mine— i know my paternal great grandmother was a quilter
early on i discovered the spare beauty of amish quilts
i first tried my hand at making a quilt in college but it didn’t turn out so well— i appliqued butterflies by machine onto squares of muslin with a blue floral border but it was really difficult to quilt the horrible polyester batting that was available back then and i became very half hearted about finishing it
my next project in my 20’s was a small, elaborate decorative wall quilt from a pattern but in the end i felt it was too fussy, with so many small shapes to cut out and lots of painstaking hand quilting
i didn’t attempt another quilt project until my daughter was 4 years old and she wanted to make a quilt to give her best friend for christmas
i pulled out all my fabric scraps and she chose some— i cut 6 inch squares and we arranged them in 6 rows of 5— i stitched them together then went to the fabric store for a border, binding and backing that would harmonize with the look of the squares— and it was a big hit!
i then made one for my daughter, and for a storyteller friend— i eventually started a cottage business i called color quilts and made and sold these through family, friends and the occasional craft fair
i then started making bigger quilts with the around the world pattern that were about the essential nature of a person, place, season or other theme— i called these spirit quilts
now i’m part of the local pvqa all stars quilting group, making quilts for kids in foster care or shelters
my next quilting endeavor is a red, white and blue “quilts of valor” for one of our men and women serving or veterans in our military
so just taking a moment on national quilting day to appreciate quilts, quilting and my love of both!
using the simple formula from the quilts i made with color quilts for this all stars project
