Getting Crafty! Feeble First Steps in Quilting (by Lori)

I have to confess that when it comes to doing arts and crafts, I tend to go in cycles. There was a period in my life when I was heavily into counted cross stitch and spent many hours stitching away, making pictures and what-not for all of my friends and relatives. Then life caught up with me, and with having a full-time job outside the home, plus trying to be a wife and mother inside the home, there just always seemed to be things that were more pressing than making some cute wall hanging that would ultimately collect dust. For many years now there has always been a little voice in my ear that would whisper, "You know, if you have time to spend on that, then you really should spend that time cleaning your dirty bathroom...you know...the one that looks like it's in some God-forsaken gas station in the middle of nowhere..."

Needless to say, arts and crafts have been on the back burner for a long time. Well, except for scrapbooking, which I don't consider to be a craft. Trust me, there is nothing "crafty" about the simple pages that I turn out (graphics artists everywhere are safe from me stealing their jobs!). The way that I scrapbook is really more "family history with pictures". However, even such a noble endeavor has been relegated to a once-a-year scrapbooking retreat that I attend with Mandy and my friends, Maria and Julia. During that three and one-half days in September I do most of my scrapbooks for the whole year. It's hard to be tempted to clean the bathroom when you're away from home!

Maybe it's because I'm finally home full-time now; maybe it's because I'm officially a white-haired middle-aged lady now; or maybe my whole composting, get-back-to-nature, become-an earth-mother metamorphosis is to blame -- regardless, I'm not only wanting to return to my older hobbies, I'm also wanting to learn some new things.

My sister has been quilting for some time now, and although I admired her beautiful quilts, I could not imagine spending so much time on a "blanket" when I could go buy one. I'm going to blame my new fascination with quilting on all of those "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and on my desire to move into a log cabin in the mountains or some misty-meadowed farm. I can just picture my little cabin, complete with a loft lined with three little beds all covered with quilts made by ME! There's just one little catch: Until I started this journey in quilting, I didn't even know how to sew! But, there's no time like the present, so I have started two baby quilts (I'm dreaming about LOTS of things -- grand-babies being part of it. After all, someone has to sleep in those loft beds!) Besides, baby quilts are small, and I can practice my skills on a small scale before moving on to something that might be too overwhelming.

The first material that I found is most certainly for a little boy. Ever since my "earth mother" transformation I have been crazy about all things John Deere. I loved the fact that the blocks were already printed on the material for me, so I must confess that I am not piecing this first quilt. But I did get to fire up my long-neglected sewing machine in order to sew on the borders (just learning how to thread the machine and pull up the bobbin thread was an adventure for this domestically challenged girl!), and I learned how to stretch it across the quilting frames and secure the three layers with pins. Since I don't really have a place to leave a sewing machine out (thanks to Chewka, the dogs, and other factors), I am actually going to try hand quilting this quilt. This is more portable for me, and I can work on it here a little and there a little. I wish you could feel the back; it is the softest thing I've ever felt (next to Chewka). I think the little tractors are so cute!

I also found some material for a little girl. Neither one of my kids are very traditional, so bunnies and butterflies would not do for my future granddaughter. I thought the print on this material was cute, and it was also great that the blocks were already printed on this material, too! Mandy has always loved paisley, so I love that the backing is paisley. This was the second quilt that I "cut", and it was much easier than the John Deere quilt. I made all of my mistakes on the John Deere quilt and realized that you really do use that math that you learned in school. I also learned that if you cut the back piece too small, you end up having to put borders on it, whether you wanted to or not. I am so glad that the prep work on the girlie quilt was easier than the first; I learned from my mistakes.

My Mom has jumped on the band-wagon, too. My niece, Kristina, is having a baby soon, and when we attended her baby shower this past weekend, Mom was so excited to present Kristina with a baby afghan that she had crocheted. Mom has severe rheumatoid arthritis and had not done any needle work for years. However, she also felt the desire to create a family heirloom, and even though it was quite an endeavor, she worked at the afghan a little each day, for as long as her hands would hold out. This was a new pattern for her, and initially there was a little cussing as she had to unravel rows, and even start all over again, but she finally got it down. She is now going to crochet three more baby afghans for her remaining grandchildren so that they can put them aside for the time that they are ready to have kids. Mandy has chosen green for her afghan, and Mom is going to do the other two afghans in white (that will be beautiful!). I think it is so great that every great-grandchild will have a little piece of "Dee Dee" wrapping them in love.

I guess that's the draw. Yes, I could buy some blankets. But the hand-made quilt is about giving someone you love a one-of-a-kind item, as unique as they are. It's also about giving a little piece of yourself. It's about telling that little grandchild that they are more important than the dirty bathroom. It's about creating, not just consuming.

After those first quilts are made, I want to continue. There is a wonderful organization called Project Linus that distributes hand-made blankets to children who need them. How fun would that be? I also saw an article that talked about the Knit One, Save One program. The article that I read talked about how they collected hand-knit caps for children in third-world countries. Now they are collecting hand-knit squares that they can sew together to make afghans for children in those countries.

"How fun would that be?" I thought, getting more excited by the minute. Just one problem: I don't know how to knit or crochet. I guess there will be a future blog entitled, "Getting Crafty! Feeble First Steps in Knitting".