A Quilt is Enough [Quilt #1]

This is a photo of my first quilt.  It is also a photo of my best friend, half an hour after her third baby was born.  This quilt was a gift to her at her shower for her second baby - I hosted the shower and asked everyone invited to bring some fabric.  Everyone chose fabric in burgandies, greens, mauves, and cream and it all went together so well!  Like anything else new that I try, I had a grand idea in mind with no idea how to bring it to completion and I begged God for help and mercy every step of the way and scoured the internet for advice.  I'm humbly grateful that this turned out to be a beautiful thing!  She used it at the hospital during the birth of her second child, kept it on her bed at home after, brought it to the hospital to snuggle around me as I had my second child, and here we are all together in this photo.

Being a creative soul, I've spent my creativity in many efforts.  Jewelry design, sketching, writing poetry and short stories; I've designed gardens and communities, sewn clothes, crocheted - something about taking raw materials or a paper and pencil and creating something beautiful that did not exist before has always brought me great satisfaction.  It's thrilling to manipulate color, line, pattern, texture, theme - all the elements of design to create something simple or complex in beauty.

Being a passionate person, I've been passionate about all these efforts; but I recently realized that I am more happy, more satisfied, more excited about quilting than anything else I've ever done.  It answers my drive to create, but it's more than that: it's enough.

When my heart warms with the greatest joy of my best friend bringing her first daughter into the world, when my heart aches for a friend facing a year of multiple surgeries and long recoveries, when my heart breaks for friends who have lost everything they have in a fire, when my heart is full of deep love and gratitude for my grandmother who taught me to sew, or when my heart swells but fails to find words to express the love I have for the people in my life and when it feels like I can't give or express enough what is in my heart, a quilt is enough.

It's the beauty in my heart expressed through design, the hard work of my hands, the many prayers prayed for that person as I work, and a beautiful thing that person can wrap around them and never forget how much I love them.  I'm not a terribly materialistic person (all fabric puns set aside), but as much as any material thing can encourage and remind someone of love, I'm very happy that I can make a quilt.

Everything That's Beautiful

I've always had superlative thoughts for my friend Heather, and I think of her a lot, because I want to be like her.  She and I were roommates in the one household I lived in between college and marriage.  We got married within 6 months of each other, she had children first, and we started our family a few years later.  She made a beautiful home for her family - a wonderful log cabin along the dividing line between a hardwood forest and a meadow.

She created a whimsical home for her children, and the most comfortable, hospitable place for anyone who visited.  Her home was full of life, cheerfulness, and warm practicality.   Her home might not have been perfectly clean or perfectly decorated - but it was perfect.  Many many people felt they could stop by anytime and sit and chat, letting the kids play their hearts out in the forest or meadow.  Another friend referred to Heather's home as the place where all our children wanted to live, and it's true!  Additionally, their home was built on solid principles, and was paid for.

She and her husband eagerly hosted gatherings: Bible studies, prayer times, and for holiday dinners, anyone was welcome at their home.  She was over-the-top in celebrating holidays with friends and families.  They made themselves family to those who didn't have family of their own.  They offered their full basement to college students, singles, couples, and families when anyone had fallen on hard times and needed a place to live as they got back on their feet.  Hundreds of people have many important memories that were made in their home.

Last Friday in the middle of the night, their beautiful home full of so many loving memories burned to the ground.  Everyone - Heather and David, their two children, and the newlywed couple living in the basement - made it out alive, with only the clothes they'd been sleeping in.  I can't imagine the terror, the fear, the trauma of that experience.  And then to be left - with literally nothing: no keys to their cars, no wallets, no photos or toothbrushes or Christmas ornaments or shoes or clothes or... anything at all.  The next day all that remained were the basement walls, the chimney, and a flat pile of ashes covered by gnarled pieces of metal roofing.

There's lots of thoughts and tears and prayers I'll have over this for quite awhile.  One of the first thoughts being, how fast can I make a quilt and get it to her.  How fast can I give her something beautiful that she can be sentimental about - something that might be valuable in keeping her warm and in decorating her future rebuilt home, and something that she can own and hold and feel love from?  Today I ordered fabric for this quilt, so happy to have found the perfect line with deer and squirrels and foxes (Timber & Leaf by Sarah Watts)  and all the things that brought rustic whimsy to her original home.  It was, however, the most stressful fabric order I've made - I could have ordered three times as many prints, but had to pare it down.  I just want her to have everything beautiful that she can possibly have right now.

Take Two

I made these potholders for a friends' birthday present in August 2011.  I was thrilled to get into the 1/2 yard bundle of Joel Dewberry's Heirloom fabric that had just arrived, and thrilled to use these prints for her since, in the middle of the Georgia Bulldog Nation, she staunchly remains... well, not-so-subtly orange-and-blue.  Couldn't bring myself to using orange and blue outright, but this was a subtle approximation, out of respect and love for her.

Her husband is a Bulldog.  Coincidence that he used these at the grill and burned them up?  Well, we'll not make accusations here; but it did make its way around to me that my friend lamented the loss (of the potholders, notwithstanding this years' loss of the big rivalry game) and really really wanted another set.  This time I let her choose the fabric - and what do you know!  Another Joel Dewberry from my stash, and there we have it.

The pattern for these is included with Amy Butler's Cafe' Apron Pattern (which is an old one, and I couldn't find it on her site currently).  These are a great project for anyone learning to quilt, and they fit and protect hands so well.  In my kitchen experience, it's so important that the top side of the potholders have the same plush batting as the palm side and these readily fit the bill.  

I learned a good bit the first time making these.  I learned that I needed to invest in a walking foot for my machine, and I learned the right way to make and sew binding.  It was encouraging how much faster this second set came together, and always encouraging to make something beautiful that will brighten someone's kitchen!  Maybe I should make some for myself, huh!

Two things I Love about this Valentine's Day

1. I have a fabric stash such that I can simply pull out a vintage piece and a new piece that look lovely on our tea party table:

2. I finally put aside my sewing to-do and made something for myself.  Something completely nonfunctional and superfluous and... simply celebratory:

I've had in mind what kind of banner I wanted, but was nervous about how to go about it.  I didn't want to quilt it, I wanted the pieces to be more stiff than plush.  Each piece was made with a strong canvas back fused to a decorative canvas top, with some Joel Dewberry fabric appliqued on top of that.  At the end I took some thick vintage thread (or thin twine) off an old wooden spool I've had lying around and simply sewed the edges of each heart and bird together.   Time will tell if this was the right way to go about my vision - we'll see how it holds up from year to year.

It was so encouraging that my boys exclaimed when they saw it, "Wow Mom, you made this?  It's very beautiful."  Precious, precious boys!

Pintucking and Box Pleating

I've never before done either one, but had so much fun with this apron.  

One of my favorite things about having sewing skills is that when you need babysitting but can't pay for it, you can offer to make something in trade.  One of my favorite things about having young, hip friends is that they tend to love handmade things and it all works out quite nicely at times.  For this friend I'd offered a number of ideas of things I could make for her, but since I left it open-ended, she sent me a link from a popular high-end retailer with "Can you make something like this?" in the subject line.

Why, yes, I can make something like this!  And I thoroughly enjoyed the simple but patient fine-tailoring of the details.  The original was made of solid fabrics in several different colors, but this combination of prints did just fine.  In fact, I'm scheming on whether or not I could make this into a sundress, as it is just way too pretty to just be an apron.

A New Year's First Quilt [Quilt #9]

There are other quilts I should have started.  There's a couple I have planned for family members, a couple coming together in my mind for friends, then there's the one - or two (I think I have enough of the fabric for two) - that I want to make to raise money for Swamp Corps; but I just couldn't get this one out of my head.

All of the quilts I made last year began with a love for a particular fabric, or a desired color scheme or theme, kept in mind while I spent my quiet moments looking at photos of quilts all over the web.  Eventually the fabric or theme in mind would start falling into place in a way similar to something I'd seen, then I'd start laying things out and rearranging until it settled into something that expressed what I had in my heart and made sense in my head.

This one though, was different.  It was inspired by my friend who collects paintings of poppies on her living room wall - all sorts, different styles.  The poppy fabric made sense to go in frames, lined up together, with the striking teal green against the rich red.  Then Joel Dewberry's plaid came along!  It threw in that hipster element that's been haunting me.  I knew something needed to go across the expanse of red at the bottom and when I closed my eyes to think about it, the stripes at odd angles popped into place.  This one wasn't based on anything else I'd seen, it came from my own mind and it wouldn't get out of my mind until I'd sewn it up!  It was creating a block against any other quilt I might have been making.

And just in time, too: this one had no name, no claim, but ESP's annual Big Hearts Pageant was coming up, complete with silent auction, and since this seemed to me to be quite appropriate for the Valentine's season, I  sent it off.  My very first silent auction!  And I thought this would be a simple thing.  Drop off the quilt, feel great about supporting a great cause.

I do feel great about it, but other feelings and thoughts came along too.  Suddenly I worried if it would be good enough!  What if it didn't sell for much?  What if all this hard (well, not so hard... as I'll explain) work didn't help ESP out diddly-squat?  And who would buy it?  Would they really love it?  And then I realized - this was the first quilt I had made that I was sending out there, somewhere, where I could not visit it.  I can visit every other quilt I've made.  I can pet it and stare at it and remember what I've learned from each one and the love in my heart for the person I gave it to.  But this one is gone.  I've sent this part of my heart off in a way that it cannot return to me - not that I'm deeply attached to the quilt itself, but the process, the love that went into it - is out there, somewhere.  I hope that love connects with the person who bought it.  It sure was unceremonious to fold it, put it in a Trader Joe's bag, put that bag inside a big Hancock Fabric's bag since it was an overcast day, and drop it off at an office with only a nice-but-unknowledgeable volunteer sitting there, tapping away at a computer.  He was so kind as he said "Thank you" - barely turning around to look, but then followed that up, with a full-turning, "Yes, thank you very much," without even looking at what was in the bag.

I am pretty happy with the pictures I got of it.  I'm looking forward to improving on my quilt photography - not to becoming a pro at it, but I'm happy enough to get some good shots that show off what I love about my work.

This quilt reinforced in my mind what I already knew about myself: I have learned most of what I know the hard way.  This, the 9th quilt I've made, is by far the easiest I've ever made!  It is my habit to jump into projects that form in my head without realizing what I'm getting into, and the other 8 quilts I've made would not necessarily fit into the beginners' category - far from it in some cases.  That's why I say this one wasn't as much hard work.  It was most enjoyable work.  So much fun playing with these fabrics.  The richness of the teal green against the brilliant red just made me happy.

The limited piecing of this one made for very relaxed quilting.  I've learned to quilt long lines all in the same direction, and I've learned it works better when quilting around squares or rectangles to do all the horizontals at one step and the verticals in another - instead of literally sewing around the rectangles.  I figured out with this one to use strips of masking tape to keep the long quilting lines relatively straight and lined up from top to middle to bottom, and to tape along the diagonals so that I could stop the long lines at the right spot to meet the angled quilting lines perfectly.

I learned that form might follow function but really, Form Follows Fabric - especially the amount of it.  I didn't know how this quilt would lay out when I ordered fabric, and realized in plenty of time that I did not have enough teal for the backing to be all in one piece as I'd intended.  So I chose the 2 other prints that most closely matched my bobbin thread (lesson learned the very hard way from quilt #3) and worked with it as I could.  This throw-sized quilt measures 48" by 68".  And it makes me very happy.  Maybe a couple bought it for their daughter.  Maybe it happened to match somebody's living room perfectly.  Maybe it was bought for a wedding present.  I'll never know.  I just hope somebody out there loves this quilt like I do.