Christmas Quilts

I am a quilter, that’s what I do.

Christmas rolls around and then you drink the Kool-Aid……. You know the “this is the perfect pattern to make my grandson a new quilt for Christmas” idea. You image his happy little face as you hand him this special gift and watch as he snuggles up all giggles and smiles. You collect all the fabric and start stitching away. You show off a few of the blocks, you even take it with you to work on at the quilt retreat. 

Then, welp you realize you have four amazing grandchildren. Each a year or two older that the last time you gifted quilts. The have moved into big boy beds or your daughter has painted a bedroom, or that last quilt might just be a little juvenile for the eleven-year-old. And all these wonderful new patterns and ideas come your way. Bombarding you with perfect for gifties for your little angels.

And then you shop and pull from your stash and make plans and and and all the sudden its November. And all the sudden Christmas Quilts idea doesn’t seem like such a great idea. You might have just bitten off a bit more than you can do. But you plunge ahead. Sewing room starts to look like a bomb went off, you are madly stitching multiple project in multiple stages of construction. And by Christmas eve you are determined to be stitching on that binding.

Then silently make yourself a promise that never again take on such mammoth projects so late of a date. 

Until two years from now……….

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Sleepless in Gahanna

Like many of you I am experiencing working from home for the first time and it looks like I will be here indefinitely. 

Working from home was really cool at first, no rush hour traffic, no coffee and lunch prep, all the leftovers got eaten, the dog got let out more regularly.  I didn’t have to worry so much about my wardrobe, every day was casual Friday. Saving money on gas and eating out. Spending time with my husband. 

The cons came with internet outages, access to work files and office equipment and being in one place ALL THE TIME. And I am and extrovert. I need my people. I need my friends. I need my kids and grandkids. I need to visit my quilt shops. I needed to go to my guild meetings. And things… big things started to get cancelled. 9 months of classes and lectures, quilt shows, work, gone.

So all this affected my creative energies. I was depressed. I wasn’t sleeping. New projects on my list were just not holding my attention. I could not move forward on them. I was in a funk. So, I pulled out an old project, an old friend, and started hand quilting.  I quilted in the morning, on my lunch break and sometimes late into the night. Ok, those of you who know me, past 10:00. I was on a mission. I was going to finish something.  One stitch at a time I was moving forward. A lot of what I work on eventually becomes a pattern. This project was just for me.  A labor of love. An old friend I have been working on and off on for years. And in the process, I managed to get a little of my drive back. And I loved it. Every step, every inch, every decision. 

One on my new patterns managed to get completed, another big project started to fit together. Little by little I got my quilting mojo back and, in the process, completed a hand appliqued and hand quilted quilt which I now will hang in my space just for me. 

And someday when this is all over hopefully you all will get to see it in person.