Crazy for Quilting

It’s blog time again and I feel at a bit of a loss because I am still working on two big projects and while I am busy with them, there is no new reveal. So let’s talk about how about part of my quilting journey and why I plan to keep quilting for as long as I can.

Although I have sewed for about 62 years now, and always been obsessed with sewing, I came to quilting rather later in my sewing journey. My first quilts were made when I was in my 20’s and were simple affairs, and made for my children when they were babies. They were simple block quilts, tied with yarn and bound with commercial satin binding.

My oldest daughter took her baby quilt to college, well the remnants of the greatly loved little quilt, as it had slowly dematerialized over the years. During her freshman year, she threw it into a load of wash and the well worn quilt completely broke down into hundreds of tiny pieces.

Here is the thing: quilts are loved. Like favorite stuffed animals and childhood books, they are a connection to a beloved person, or time and place.

This crazy quilt was entirely hand stitched and made for oldest daughter for her wedding. I used leftover fabrics from her wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses, vintage lace, scraps of left over trim and a silk swatch of a Phoenix that was a gift from a dear friend. In true crazy quilt tradition, it is heavily hand embroidered. It took me three months of sewing every night after work and every weekend. I knew very little about making a quilt in 2000, but this project was a cornerstone of my quilting journey. I surprised her with at her wedding reception and was rewarded with her tears.

Quilts connect us. They are bridges, they are tributes and memories. They are the past to which we can never return, the present joy of making and sharing them, and the future awaiting us. And this is why I am crazy for quilting.

Happy quilting!

Lennea