A Pictorial Journal of My Year of Quilting One Stitch at a Time

After about 25 years of compulsive knitting and needlepoint, my wrists and thumb joints decided I needed a rest bringing me to realize it might be advisable to look into some other sort of handwork/needlework. I had always sewn my children’s clothes when they were growing up...the little matching boy and girl outfits when they were babies and then school and church clothes as they aged. At age 70 that really didn’t appeal to me anymore, but the idea of going back to my quilting roots did.  I was aware of all the neat quilting shops opening up, the precut colorful fabrics, and the fabulous sewing machines so I decided to go for it.

Well, it has been one huge, very slow, learning experience, but it’s been exciting and a joy from the onset. I was a hand quilter with those mini-stitches, a swinging frame from our sleeping porch, church quilting bees out in the country, a huge frame in the living room as well as the big oval ones that sat in my lap.  All fabric was measured and cut out by hand with plain old heavy pinking shears. There were no companies like Moda offering precut shapes and sizes of material ready to stitch, no rotary cutters, and no protective rubbery things to cut on with those SHARP round blades.  There was certainly no quilting done on a sewing machine! All piecing and sewing together were put together by hand. All we had were LOTS of needles and LOTS of thimbles!!!

Since I could only find one photo of my huge quilting frame with my daughter, who is now 47, and a very pregnant me working away on a huge cross-stitched quilt, I decided to attempt to document my work in photos so I would have some record to refer back to in the years to come.What follows is a group of collages I made using Picnik capturing the quilted things I have made this year.  My other sewing projects I hope to share at another time.  When I look at these pictures, I am amazed at how small and simple my quilts are when compared to the magnificent quilts out there created by the “real” quilters of our blogging world, but for me I am very happy with my accomplishment.I still have a lot to learn and a long ways to go before I feel like I am even within 50 miles of those wonderful quilters whose blogs I follow, but I will persevere and keep on trying to make new and different quilts, playing with color and design, coordinating fabrics, and working to learn how to make the fascinating patterns out there and learn to use the new machine quilting techniques.  I look forward to this next year ...heaven only knows what I will come up with!

"A bed without a quilt is like the sky without stars.”

~Author Unknown