Here's a picture of some of the fabrics I pulled for my hour a day quilt. Since then, I've added a few more blues, a purple and a couple of more backgrounds. I don't want this to be a red quilt.I've cut strips to match up for the HSTs and will start cutting them today.
Patti asked why do we quilt? I've been thinking about that since I read her posts.
I had never even heard of quilts or quilting until a friend and I went to the Amish country of PA when I was 18. We stayed one night with a Mennonite family and slept under quilts even though it was summer. That trip was such an eye opener for me. I saw all the quilts that these women made and was bowled over. Nobody in my family had ever done anything like that. But, since I have the attention span of a gnat, I forgot about it until years later when Mike and I took the kids on vacation to Lancaster County. That's when I found the shop in Intercourse. I went through every single rack and stack of quilts in that place and realized I couldn't afford a single one. So I looked closer and decided I wanted to make one myself. The rest, as they say, is history. lol
I quilt because I have only one thing from my grandmother. It's a thread crocheted part of a bedspread that my Mom was going to toss if I didn't take it. It was in pieces because Grandma died before she finished it. So a friend of mine took it and finished it for me. I'm keeping it for my daughter.
So I quilt. Somebody someday will be able to say "My grandma made this".
I quilt because I like it. I may not finish everything. I love puzzles and piecing quilts is like doing puzzles.
I quilt because it makes me feel good.
This brings me to a lightbulb moment I had when I read Patti's blog. I've been a longarm machine quilter since 2000, and have been concentrating on doing customer quilts at the expense of my own. I always said I didn't need to make my own, I have a private quilt show in my studio every day. Well, guess what? I've been very wrong. I do need to do my own. Just pulling the fabric for the hour a day has made me feel better. On the other hand, I've been doing the Harvest Spice BOM and that hasn't done anything but get me extremely pissed(excuse my language). It builds up like lava in a volcano and I have to put it away or I'll throw it away. And it's going to be a wedding gift for the Precious Twins. So I will plug away at it. But....................I will do the hour a day, and I will eventually do Tonya's challenge because I really want to learn how to do the letters. If and when Judy comes up with more projects, I will do them too.
Because I need to quilt. Not just use someone else's formulae and fabrics like the BOMs and kits. Yes, I'm following a pattern with the hour a day, but I'm using fabrics that I've held, stroked and loved. It won't look like anybody's quilt-it'll be mine.
It won't be easy once school starts. My surgeon said I can do light duty, so I'll be answering phones at the bus barn until I'm able to drive. They're really going to love me when I tell them I may have to have a basal cell removed from my face. I had it biopsied yesterday and will hear next week whether or not it's skin cancer. If it is, it's got to come out.
But I will quilt. Just because I have to and want to. It's become part of who I am. I am a quilter.
13 comments:
I'm so glad you had this revelation - it will make a huge difference in your life. Working with others' quilts isn't the same thing at all. I may have a longarm, and I do some customer quilts because I needed to in order to justify my purchase to myself, but I freely admit I bought it mainly for finishing my own quilts.
the fabrics should work well for the hour a day, Eileen.
Good and bad news from the doctors it sounds like---but you have to take care of it. My husband has a lesion that has to be worked on again because there was some basal cell carcinoma in it on biopsy. Thing is almost healed up from the first round and here we go again.
Prayers coming your way on the biopsy. Can't wait to see the quilt from those fabrics, looks like good choices.
loved your post - thanks for telling us why you quilt - wondering what kind of surgery you had on your back? dh had back surgery this summer too - hope you are back to full speed soon
Glad to hear you are quilting for yourself. I thought that's what we were supposed to do. Prayers coming your way for positive results on the biopsy.
Nice to see you have found some fabrics for the Hour A Day quilt. Hope you enjoy making it as much as i have enjoyed making mine. Would love to see the progress of this quilt.
Hope everything works out okay with the biopsy.
Ooooh, I love those fabrics Eileen, they will look great in the quilt. I'm really pleased that you're taking the time to make your own quilts. Sometimes we give give give all the time, and forget to take a little for ourselves.
Have a great weekend.
*hugs*
Tazzie
:-)
So well said. I am proud to say, "I am a quilter, too."
Those darn Amish, they certainly got me sucked into quilting too. Fingers crossed that you feel better soon!
My prayers are with you for your health.
I love those old Robyn Pandolph fabrics. Rosehill Manor is one of my favorites. They will make a beautiful 1-Hr quilt!
Now you need to come back to the Lancaster area again and meet up with me!! I'll show you all of the amazing quilt shops and we can just make it a girl weekend! :o)
Hope your health problems are not too serious - I have never tried block of the month because it would be what someone else has decided to make, not what I decide to make so I agree with you, you need to create your own quilts - it's self expression.
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