quiltiness . . .

So far it's been a quiet week quilt-wise ... still haven't gotten into the Nook to 'fix' my challenge piece.  Hopefully on Friday I will be able to get to that!  We have Meg Cox, quilt journalist and author of The Quilter's Catalog, coming to speak at our guild meeting on Thursday evening (I'm really excited ... I've blogged a bit about Meg here).  Her book was one of the first quilting books I purchased, and I read it cover to cover, it was SO good! If you haven't ever read it, it's definitely worth checking out.  On Saturday I'm taking her Photo Rituals workshop which deals with vision boards and photo quilts.  Yay!  I can't wait to share a bit more about that.

This installment of A Quilter's Journey was featured originally in our November Fanfare. That makes the "thankful" theme make sense!

I have so much for which to be thankful.  One thing I give thanks for is that my grandmother was a quilter.  She started the craft in her later years and I have no childhood recollection of her quilting (actually, I have *no* recollection of her quilting, ever).  As far as I know she belonged to no guilds or quilting/stitching groups.  There was no internet at the time, so access to other quilters and designs (which is where I get so much of my inspiration) was limited.  And unfortunately, my interest in her quilting interest didn’t bloom until I’d started quilting, long after she’d passed away.  Fortunately, for me, my mom kept *everything* of her mom’s, and as my passion for quilting developed, mom handed off my grandmother’s quilting ‘things’ to me. What an education! It gave me a whole handful of *quilty* reasons to be thankful . . .

I’m thankful that rotary cutters were first introduced in 1979 and were quickly adopted by quilters. In my grandmother’s things were a huge pair of heavy, silver shears.  She cut all of her fabric pieces by hand with them.  I’m not sure my traditional grandmother ever even knew that rotary cutters were available, but I sure do love my assortment!

I’m thankful for acrylic rulers and templates.  Another find in my grandmother’s things was a handful of cardboard templates in assorted shapes. Hexagons, pieces for a Sunbonnet Sue, Dresden fan blades . . . among others. I take for granted the ease in which I cut triangles and squares and EPP shapes! Today I can cut multiple layers at a time, with rulers and the rotary cutter, whereas she could only mark and cut one piece at a time. Yikes!

I’m thankful for high-quality, 100% cotton fabrics, in a HUGE array of colors and prints.  My grandmother used scraps from old clothes and bedding — not because she couldn’t afford fabric, but because she had to in order to have the colors and variety she wanted!  Today if you can’t find just the right print, you can go to spoonflower.com and create what you want.  How cool is that?

You know what else I’m thankful for?  Technology.  I adore my EQ software and being able to layout a new quilt and change colors/fabrics around with the click of the mouse. Or to resize a block without having to do any math calculations, just by changing numbers. I found this precious drawing of a block butterfly that my grandma had drawn out, along with her thoughts on coloring.  Not sure if the quilt ever got made (or who has it now if it did), but I know a lot of work and thought went into her creative process!

There are many more ‘things’ I’m quilt-thankful for, but in the end, I’m most thankful that this incredible craft has survived through the ages, is an outlet for my creativity, and has a huge community that is friendly, inspiring, encouraging and continues to grow.

My name is Denise and I’m a quilter.  :)