Adventures in Quilting

For a long time, I had determined that I don’t like to sew, don’t need to sew, and don’t want a refresher on sewing. 9th grade Home Economics class in Guyman was my one foray into sewing and I did it enough to receive a passing grade. And haven’t done much with it since. Until now that is. Opening a store with my mom that has quilting supplies as well as my scrapbooking stuff made it inevitable that I would have to sew again. In preparation for a quilted table runner class, I became the guinea pig for mom to practice her teaching with. Let me tell you, cutting fabric is way more complicated than cutting paper! Fabric squirms and the ruler guide moves, and a straight cut was hard to achieve! And the sewing machine! OMG! The machine is like a living thing as it pulls in the fabric as you “try” to guide it along the proper measuring line. The seam ripper became my good friend as I removed my crooked first attempts and tried again to sew a straight, even seam allowance. But, you know, as I kept cutting and sewing, I started to get the “feel” of it and the fabric pieces and seams became straighter. And as I added the different borders to the block, it started to resemble the pattern on the instruction sheet. I can’t say I caught the quilting fever but I felt a sense of joy of what I was creating. I went out of my comfort zone and found a creative side of myself that I didn’t think was there. Something I highly recommend to everyone!!