I started quilting back in 1995. I had been an avid knitter, making all sorts of sweaters, baby clothes, scarfs, and more. But over time, knitting started to take a toll on my arms and wrists. Between knitting, typing on my computer, and playing the piano, I needed to find a hobby that wasn’t hand-intensive. When I discovered quilting, the fact that I could “drive with my foot” made all the difference in the world.
What I Love About Quilting
As I got more interested in quilting, I realized that my true love of the craft lies in a few areas:
- Selecting fabric – Something magical happens to me when I’m in a fabric store pulling bolts for a project. It is hard to explain. It is almost like my brain enters another zone. The synapses fire differently. I love the entire process of putting bolts of fabric next to each other, standing back and squinting, and imaging how a project will look when it is finished. It is purely mesmerizing for me.
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Jinny Beyer border fabric.
Intricate, meticulous piecing – I have a special love for border fabric. In particular, I love Jinny Beyer border fabric. I enjoy working with it to see what types of patterns emerge from piecing it into quilts. The type of sewing skills required to work with border fabric are quite exacting. I am a technician at heart, I think. I love to line things up so that my corners are perfect and my seams are aligned just right.
How I Got Started
My first quilt.
When I started quilting, I used very standard patterns and really learned from the “Quilt in a Day” series by Eleanor Burns. The patterns were easy to follow and the quilts were easy to make.
In 2004, I attended my first Jinny Beyer conference. WOW! What an amazing experience that was. I had never been in any type of environment where I was surrounded by so many quilters of all levels. The techniques I learned changed how I approach quilting forever.
Original design.
My Quilting Life Now
Sadly, these days I rarely have time to quilt. And, when I do have time, I walk into my sewing room, sit down, and I don’t know where to begin. This makes me very sad. Lately, I have been curating an interesting page called She Who Dies With The Most Fabric Wins. It is a collection of articles and blog posts that I find on the internet and curate into a single page.
I enjoy curating the page because I get to see so many beautiful quilts. It is also fun to read about other people’s lives and how quilting fits. I have never been one for Americana and I find the thought of small towns to be quite quaint. But, I am surprisingly attracted to this wide world of quilters who post about their weekends, their kids, their spouses, and their quilts. Maybe that’s why I started this blog.
