Asked recently on an art quilt list to which I belong was the question: What has quilting done for me?
What has quilting given me? LIFE!!!
I've always sewn but could not understand this idea of cutting little pieces of cloth and sewing them together into these strange patterns. My sister, also a quilter, kept pushing me. We'd shop for fabric, which of course I'd buy, and every once in a while I'd buy a magazine and check it out and put it aside.
It was during El Niño here at the coast: days and days of constant rain, gloom, and we'd just moved here so I thought we'd made a HUGE mistake with this really crappy weather. I had all the fireplaces (3) burning, all the lights on in the house, and then I came across that darn quilting magazine. I had fabric so I thought, what the heck!
And I haven't stopped since. That was 1997. I have that first quilt in my family room, visible each day to remind me of whence I began, because I'm very far from that first quilt pattern!
I've quilted, been a board member (several times) of our local guild, been in shows, had quilts travel and be shown in Europe, opened and, unfortunately, closed a quilt shop. But I still love it and it does keep me sane. I stitch every day, whether by machine or by hand. I must do it.
And I do both traditional and art pieces. LOVE this and have no plans to ever stop. And it helps my arthritic hands to keep them moving!
Piece On!
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