Time to Quilt

When Sam saw my latest quilt top he asked “who is that one for?”.
Silly man!
Do people ask an artist when they finish a painting, who’s it for?
It’s for me.. of course. Whether I keep it or give it away is always secondary.
I quilt for myself.

I secretly think he asked because he wanted me to keep this one.

“Art is to console those who are broken by life”. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

That makes every quilt – art.

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What you just read above is another Facebook memory – from a little over a decade ago. I promise not to keep sharing them but this one really hit home today.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about quilting and where it plays a part in my life going forward. As much as I enjoy gifting and donating quilts, I still quilt for myself because it’s what I love doing. I realize how incredibly fortunate I am to have something to do that I absolutely love. ♥

My quandary lately is…
Do I take on the work and responsibility of leading a group of quilters to make and donate quilts – or not?

My doctor says “no stress!” for health reasons. My husband asks “how are you going to manage that with after school pick-up?” And, my heart says…. “will trying to lead a group actually strip away the thing I love doing the most?” because I know how super hard it is to both lead and participate. It’s a tough decision and one I’m not taking lightly.

The quilt is still one of my very favorites and from the pattern called Seafarer by Quiltfabrication. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it! If you know me, you’ll know I’ve worn a ship’s wheel and anchor charm around my neck for longer than I can remember. It’s the first thing Sam ever gave me, it’s symbolic of our last name and, my step-dad just so happened to be a ship captain.

I think this pattern is the only one I’ve ever purchased specifically designed for string piecing.

And, today this quilt is for me. A reminder of how much I love to quilt and that no matter how much I love quilting- family will always come first.
Everything else ranks a distant 3rd place. ♥

One reason I like to share photos of my quilts on Facebook is because they pop back up a decade or so later as a “memory” and make me smile when I see them. I remember not being able to wipe the smile off my face at the lizards I quilted to match the focus fabric in this little quilt. I even drove over to a nearby park to get a picture of it on the playground.

For a time, I enjoyed making “Quilts for Kids” through their official website and this was one of their free kits. They asked that you mail it back finished with another quilt of your own.

I quickly realized I could make and donate double the number of quilts if I didn’t pay shipping costs to send them out of state.

Many years ago a friend told me “do what you love, love what you do” and, I’ve been very fortunate to be able to do exactly that..

Which also brings back a memory of my all time favorite quote ~

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me’. ~ Erma Bombeck

Today I made a trip to Resource Depot, a non-profit materials recycling thrift store.

I wanted to look for a few more rolls of adding machine tape and luckily, I found some! I got these (plus some index cards that I like to use to keep a running grocery list) all for just $2.oo.

Since I like to use paper foundations for my string quilts, these work great for short strings and scraps. These are examples of quilts I’ve made with them.

I also scored a 9 1/2″ Omnigrid ruler for $3.00 or maybe it was $4.00… I don’t remember but I know it was a whole lot less than you’d have to pay for a new one! It’s the exact size I prefer using to trim my string blocks.

Do I need another ruler this size? Yep! I plan to start making string blocks with friends soon so an extra one or two the right size will really come in handy.

I didn’t expect to find any nice quilting fabric but I was pleasantly surprised to find these:

A two yard piece of fabric by wilmington Prints for only $4.oo. It’ll make a great quilt border. I like to select a border fabric before I make my string blocks so I can pull the colors I want to use from there. I think blocks in shades of gold, cream, rust, and brown will look great. I see it with a blue inner border too or, maybe the center string for the blocks Ocean inspired fabrics are always my favorites!

Another two yard piece of fabric by E.E. Shenk for $4.00. It will work great to make a cute kiddo quilt or two.

I probably had a half a dozen ideas on how I can use this cat fabric before I even left the cash register! And, because I love the mission of this non-profit so much I dropped a couple of dollars in the donation box before I left.

I spent about 75% less than what these items would have cost me if I had purchased them at regular retail prices. For sure, I need to make a point of getting over to Resource Depot more often.

Last year, one of our guild members challenged us to make a leaders / enders project using this pieced unit. If you’ve never heard this term in the quilting world you can read all about it on Bonnie Hunter’s Quiltville blog here.

I began making blocks using either white or black depending on what thread I had in the machine at the time.

While piecing the guild’s contest blocks into the top for our South Florida Fair quilt I managed to get a lot of the block units pieced using dark thread.

This week I finished the Leaders / Enders quilt.

I added two black strips and two colored strips to each L/E unit to create log cabin blocks. This quilt will be donated to the Vita Nova group I mentioned in last week’s post.

I’ve been making a string quilt and hand binding it this week, while also thinking about what to create next.

I’d forgotten I’d put a few patriotic quilts in a bin before the holidays. Looking back over my blog posts I can see the blocks were made for this one so it will probably be the next in line. Hopefully, I can finish all my L/E units with white background while using light thread.