Still Taking It One Stitch at a Time

My life is now measured out in fat quarters and inches and yards of fabric. Not everyone will be interested in the quest for bigger and better quilts. Just know that I am, and that this is all a learning process that I must carry out. Quilting brings me a creative release, gives me permission to touch all the fabrics as I have been want to do for many years, allows me to lock myself away for hours on end and be unavailable, and play with color and texture. It also torments me at times, always challenges me, pushes me to my edge and often over and now days has become my calendar. My list on the white board is getting smaller only to be added to again and again. While most of my quilts are either graduation or wedding gifts this year, the Lord still prods me to do the compassion quilts that got me started. Those are the quilts that are made for people who somehow just need a great big hug and a reminder that God knows and is holding them in the palm of His hand.

I managed to get a quilt top done for Jenn's boyfriend just before he graduated. The design is all Jenn's. I am so proud of her design that we have entered this quilt in a local quilt show. Now I definately have to finish it soon. The excuse for not having it done is that Nick is getting a new bed and we don't know the size yet. Underline the word excuse- I just had to move on to other things for a while. It will get finished Nick- I promise.

This quilt was finished the day of the wedding and Jenn and I were able to present it to Nikki, the bride and her hubby, Tim. They were overwhelmed. My good friend Lynn did the longarm quilting on it for me- it was a first for her on her new machine also. All in all, we did some awesome work here.



Now I must get back to my sister's quilt and get it into king sizeness. It has also been entered in the upcoming quilt show.

Jenn was looking at Nikki's quilt laying on my bed and suggested that perhaps the time had come for me to slow up on the making of the gift quilts just long enough to make a quilt for my bed. My quilt is an old store bought one that is in very sad shape. I don't even love it enough right now to stitch up the tears in it. Let me check with my whiteboard- hmmmm maybe I can get to that in 2008 if no one else decides that they need to get married or start having kids- I still have these two tops to finish for the quilt show, a special challenge quilt I must make in Sept. for that show for my guild, 2 more wedding quilts and I must stay open to the Lord who often throws one in to see if I am paying attention.