When I started quilting I was happy to make a few quilts and decided that I needed to make at least 2 quilts for each bed in my house. Then in December 2001 discovered an amazing quilt shop in Oakville on my way home from the airport after taking one of my sisters to the airport after our father's funeral. This quilt was hanging from the ceiling. I had to make one! Not only this one, but nearly every one hanging from the 14 foot ceiling. I walked through that shop gawking at all the wondrous quilts and patterns. I had to wait until Sept to take a Biblical Blocks class so I signed up for machine quilting, machine applique and foundation piecing.
I was in the middle of doing an undergrad program in counseling studies, the details of taking over the family farm and all the farm books were in process and I was in the middle of a nightmare menopause journey as well as mourning the death of my father all while milking cows every day. I am writing a book about that time in my life and I realize now, that writing up these blog posts about my quilting journey is allowing me to revisit those difficult years albeit through the happy journey of quilting. Quilting, or at least starting new quilts became my happy place of escape from the realities of real life.
We did one block in the all day workshop and I went home and made a whole bunch of units. The challenge then became to find suitable fabrics for the stained glass effect. It took buying dozens of fat quarters in random colours for my "stash". Most of these are still in the stash. I realized that the newly available batiks gave the best stained glass effect. I wonder how many windows I will eventually make to complete something?
Blessings,
Chris
I was in the middle of doing an undergrad program in counseling studies, the details of taking over the family farm and all the farm books were in process and I was in the middle of a nightmare menopause journey as well as mourning the death of my father all while milking cows every day. I am writing a book about that time in my life and I realize now, that writing up these blog posts about my quilting journey is allowing me to revisit those difficult years albeit through the happy journey of quilting. Quilting, or at least starting new quilts became my happy place of escape from the realities of real life.
I started signing up for classes and making whatever they were offering. I had more money now and bought patterns and gadgets. Many I do not remember how to use. I even bought EPP papers to eventually learn to do that.
We did one block in the all day workshop and I went home and made a whole bunch of units. The challenge then became to find suitable fabrics for the stained glass effect. It took buying dozens of fat quarters in random colours for my "stash". Most of these are still in the stash. I realized that the newly available batiks gave the best stained glass effect. I wonder how many windows I will eventually make to complete something?
Blessings,
Chris
I really loved reading this post. What a great story your writing about these times will make.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be a beautiful quilt. I'm enjoying reading all your posts.
ReplyDelete