Quilts From The Quiltmaker’s Gift,
by Joanne Larsen Line

My youngest daughter Erin has been asking to make a quilt for a long time (never mind how long; shame on me!). I helped her pick out fabric yesterday for a quilt for her bed, and we are using a pattern from Quilts from The Quiltmaker’s Gift. She has a good eye for color, and after I remembered about the newer 1/4″ patchwork foot for the Pfaff machine, she’s getting better keeping the seam allowances consistent. The newer patchwork foot has a flange on the right side, to help keep the fabric from moving out of position as you sew the seams.

I’m trying to let go of my perfectionism, of course. Poor kid, with a mom like me for whom a 1/4″ seam better be 1/4″ or it gets redone. I’m not making her redo, unless it’s way, way off, but I do point it out so she can learn, and she seems okay with that. I’ve never been great at teaching kids anything, but I did try with my older daughter. Maybe it was my perfectionism that drove her off of the whole quilting thing. Well, we all get better with age, I suppose.

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I visited the Black Forest Quilters Guild once again last evening. I’ve been away from the guild for a number of years, since about the time I passed the presidency on to Liz probably. I think I was a little burnt out on it all after three years on the board, and then life just got busier and busier for me and Friday nights ceased to be quilt nights, even just once a month for a meeting. In the last couple of years, I’ve stopped in here and there, but I hope to make it a more regular entry on my calendar going forward.

It was really wonderful to see all the ladies I’ve not seen in many years, and do some catching up. Show and Tell is usually the highlight for me, and last night was no exception. One member shared three antique quilts from her great grandmother that were made around 1900! It was so special. I nearly cried at the beauty of these quilts, especially the Double Wedding Ring, and it was just so lovely that she shared these pieces of her heritage with all of us.

I’ve only ever seen one other antique quilt that I really loved (and I couldn’t afford to buy it), and maybe it’s the lack of familial connection with the quiltmaker that turns me off to antique quilts a bit. A quilt just seems to mean so much more when it’s a part of your own heritage and you feel a connection to the maker through shared blood. I’m sure that there are many other antique quilts out there that are beautiful and that anyone would be proud to own, and as quilters and textile artists we are all connected in a way, but those lucky quilters who have quilts made by their ancestors are the ones I envy just a bit.

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When you’ve found the perfect fabric for a quilt in your stash and you don’t have enough, but your favorite quilt shop comes through with the perfect replacement, and plenty of it!

Talk about a “make my day moment” and a WFF all in one! I’m planning a new quilt, and of course I had the perfect background fabric, but not enough of it. I tried a couple of other things from my stash, and none would do as well as the fabric I really wanted to use. I even called my buddy Liz to see if she had this fabric-from-who-knows-how-many-years-ago, and believe it or not, she not only knew exactly what fabric I was talking about without seeing it (scary), she found some in her sewing room!

Alas, even with her yardage, I was still coming up short, since I needed seven yards or something like that. I’d even ordered something from a shop on the internet, even though I didn’t figure it would be right when it got here. This is the downside to working from your fabric stash. Sometimes, desperation sets in. So in desperation, I went out to Patchcom to visit Birgit today, and she hooked me up with the perfect thing. It’s a fabric from the Krystals line from Michael Miller, and it’s no wonder that I found the perfect thing, since there are 180 different colors in that line I think.

To top off my good fortune and Warm Fuzzy Feelings, the fabric wasn’t even that expensive! I don’t buy a whole lot of fabric from German shops, because of the price difference partly due to the weak dollar, but when you have to have it, well, you just have to have it, and it’s definitely a bonus if it’s semi-cheap! I’m off to wash my fabric, and count this a successful and productive day, and it’s only early afternoon. Cheers!

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