Monday, January 02, 2006


Any of you quilters old enough to remember when the Amish doll pattern(with a quilt included) surfaced back in the late 1970's or early 1980's?? A friend of mine bought it, made tons and tons of both the boy and the girl dolls to sell. Not sure if she made the quilt or not, since she is primarily a doll maker. But the quilt excited me, back then. Today it's not a quilt that I probably would ever do again..and certainly NOT in the blue and mauve that was so popular back then. But I did make this one, and one more for a nephews wedding. His doesn't have quite this much hand quilting. You see back then I lived to QUILT. Piecing was ok, but quilting was my saving grace. Sometimes you quilt to save yourself, sometimes to keep your heart from breaking, and sometime because it is broken, and what can you do? For centuries women have quilted their "lives" into their quilts. With machine quilting, I'm not sure if that is still true. There is something about the "holding yourself in one place, focused on one task, threading the needle, making the knot, running the lines(or the lack there of). Something that pulls us together and centers us. Something that makes the "undone" part of us whole again. Or stronger. Or at least strong enough to continue on. If you never hand quilt at all, you may get the same feeling when you are sewing down the binding. It's something about that needle and thread........ Posted by Picasa

5 comments:

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh I love it! And I for one love heavy quilting - so this is wonderful! Isn't that funny how y ou can tell that time when blues and mauves were in - I remember that! But this is really nice - I love the clamshells! You have me convinced on them!

And any of my quilting - piecing or hand quilting gives me that peace of mind.

Anonymous said...

I believe that we all crave quiet time where we can think, ponder, pray, whatever. It's a time where we can rejuvenate our souls and handquilting is perfect for that. Thanks for the reminder to slow down and enjoy life quietly from time to time :-)

Maggie Ann said...

I appreciate your insight into life. Doing needlework is calming to me. It is entering into a new world..one where stress is soon left behind and where we are rewarded for our quiet patience of labor. I like how the quilting patterns show up on this quilt. Each one is special in its own way, just like most people.

Tonya Ricucci said...

Hmmm, yeah, not in those colors ever ever again. I actually really like this block, only there needs to be more of them and scrappier and zingier... Love all your hand quilting tho.

Susan Tidwell said...

Love your quilting philosophy! Keep up the beautiful work and sharing with us, and the words of wisdom, all are much appreciated.