Quilting

I have finally found what I absolutely love to do and can actually do it.  I'm still learning, but I will get better.

Growing up, I was taught that we all have talents and that we need to work to develop those talents.  I have to say that I have wondered for years and years what my talents are.

I can't dance.  I can't sing.  I can't play an instrument (although I can play the piano one handed).  I am not creative - I can't craft without copying, I can't make cards without copying, I can't make cute things out of nothing.  I can't decorate.  I really couldn't figure out what my talent was.  (Besides talking)

I have spent TONS of money of scrapbooking - but have no talent in putting cute pages together or cards together.  I tried to do that.  No good.  (Now I have to try to sell it all).

But making quilts and sewing...I love it.  I love to sew.  I'm not very good - my lines aren't perfectly straight and even.  But I love it.  I am trying different things. 

My first quilt was a family picture quilt:

I didn't know how to pick out fabrics, so the nice lady at the fabric store pulled out many different ones and I bought them all.  I have fun doing it!  I wish I had done it differently now, but I enjoyed that quilt so much.

Then I made a quilt for my aunt:

This was a special quilt for me.  I found the pattern and immediately thought of Aunt Mary and knew I had to make it.  I sent it up at Thanksgiving and she passed away just before Christmas.

I bought lots of patterns and different fabrics for my next quilt - and I made a turning twenty quilt.  But I only pieced the top and haven't done anything else yet.

I made another quilt - red, black and white.  It is gorgeous!  I have the backing and the batting, but don't feel confident enough to quilt the top.  And it costs money to have someone professionally do it.  But I really like it.  It isn't perfect - but I'm learning!

I love the border fabric!  I want to make a quilt with that fabric as the main fabric.  Love love love it.

I made a baby quilt for a friend - I did it all.  This was the first quilt (baby quilt) I did from start to finish.  I quilted the top all by myself!  Oh, it wasn't a good job - but I tried my best.  And a baby won't notice if the lines weren't straight!

I've gotten the sewing bug, I tell you!

A month ago, I had the desire to make another ribbon quilt.  This time for my new neighbor, Tina.  Her sister, Terrie, died from breast cancer 4 years ago.  I couldn't NOT do it - even though I didn't want to quilt another one because the first one was special to me.  I knew I needed to make one more ribbon quilt.  So I spent the next couple of weeks piecing it and then quilting it together.  The entire time I thought of my friend Tina and a woman I never met.  I really enjoyed it.

(Picture to come soon)

I recently made this bag:

I can't say how much I love it!  It is BIG.  Tim thought I was kidding him when I told him I was using that as my purse.  It fits everything in nicely.   I love that fabric and bought the rest of the bolt a couple of years ago - but when I asked Tim if he liked it, he said he didn't.  So I new a quilt was out for our room and tried to figure out how to use the fabric (I didn't have a ton of it - but it could have been a pretty main fabric for a quilt).  I decided that a purse would be perfect.  Love it!

And now I'm almost done with my Halloween wall hanging.  It is long enough for a lap quilt, but narrow.  So a wall hanging it will be!  I'm very excited.  Once I finish it, I'll post a picture.  Again, I'm not impressed with my quilting - I think I need a walking foot to make it better.  But once I wash it, it will be better.

I have all these ideas of things I want to sew - pillows, bags, blankets, CD holders.  I can't sleep at night because I'm thinking of something new to sew! 

Too bad the money isn't there to do all I want to do!

But I finally found my talent!