HOW IT ALL BEGAN....

My love for quilts and quilting began very early.  My young mother taught herself to sew when I was very young, and did quite well making clothes for me and my sister, whenever she could get her hands on some fabric. She has always been the master of making something from nothing, whether it be with fabric or food.  It wasn't very long until she began to use the remnants of fabric to make a quilt. I can remember that quilt well, it was an applique pattern of ladies holding an umbrella. I'm sure I was a pest as I continually messed with her fabrics while she tried to sew and embroider the blocks.  After all, fabric has to be touched, right?  In my eyes, that quilt was beautiful, and still is in my memory.

We had a cardboard barrel about half the size of a 55 gallon drum that someone had given us. This came to be known as the sewing barrel and that is where all of the fabric scraps were kept, and I was constantly dumping this out and digging through it.

When I was about 10, my mother announced she was going to teach me to sew. I was more than excited, and tried to be a good student.  However, I am cursed with my Dad's patience, or lack of it.  My mother still patiently put up with me and taught me how to hand sew, and embroider, and then allowed me to use her sewing machine.  By the time I was 14, I was making many of my own clothes.  When I was 15, I made my first quilt from scraps of fabric from the sewing barrel and remnants from the local shirt factory.  It was a twin size four patch that my daughter still has.  I cut out squares using cardboard templates, and then hand pieced it together. I quilted the entire thing while sitting in my bedroom floor, no hoop or frame.   It was not pretty or well made, but oh how I enjoyed making it.  There was no going back, I was hooked. I don't remember having the least bit of doubt about diving right in, or that something might not turn out okay. It was a good thing that I didn't know that quilting had so called "rules". 

I started out making quilts with the idea that it was a great way to not waste, and use up leftover fabric. It quickly became a way of not only making something that had a purpose, but that was also pretty and unique.  I have no idea how many quilts I have made, but we do have several quilts, and usually several in progress. 

Quilting for me has grown to consume an entire room of our house.  I have to say that my husband is my biggest fan, and has been more than willing to go to quilt shows and fabric stores. I could never have known back in the beginning how much enjoyment I would get from quilting or that it would be such a big part of my life.



Proverbs 31:21-22  When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.