The Quilting Journey

I love sharing pictures of my quilts and talking about my quilting but I sometimes think it can be a little intimidating to new quilters or to those who have less free time for quilting. So, here's the "rest of the story" to help put it all in perspective. The quilt shown above is my very first quilt. I obviously started quilting in the early 80's. It is all pieced and quilted by hand. How else would a good quilter make a quilt? I started a few others but can't remember another one that was totally hand pieced and hand quiltd. At some time during the late 80's and early 90's, quilting took a back seat to smocking and French handsewing (by machine) but as you can see, I went back to quilting. The discovery of machine piecing changed everything and that's when my *real* quilting began. I was working part-time and Chad was young (and wild!) so my quilting time was pretty limited. I hand quilted a few tops, mom hand quilted one or two and I had some of them quilted by a longarmer. In 1997 we moved to Kentucky and I no longer worked outside the home. We bought a house that had several acres, with woods and a shallow pond nearby, and no neighbors. Chad was in 4th grade and when he wasn't at school, he was outside playing hard! I suddenly had lots and lots of time for quilting and the tops began piling up. I wasn't able to find a longarmer here who would do the type quilting I wanted and that's how I ended up buying my own longarm. As I mentioned in a previous post, mom counted 90 quilts here. I have gone back and tried to list the quilts I've made. I know I'm not remembering all of them and wish I had kept better records but in addition to the 90 that are here, I have listed 55 that I have given away so that means I've made at least 145 quilts, with most of those having been made in the last 8 - 10 years. You may be wondering how I have time to make so many quilts. It's all I do! Today is a good example. Chad left at 7:30 for work and will be home at 5:00. Vince is out of town. Other than doing a few household chores, I will quilt all day. I won't leave home, I won't see anyone else . . I will spend the entire day quilting. Chad probably has plans for the evening so I will quilt all evening and half the night. I won't leave home, I won't see anyone else . . I will spend most of the night quilting. That's how most of my days/nights go. I am very thankful for my quilting obsession. One day things may be different. We may live where we have family closer, or where we've made friends and I'll have less time for quilting but for now . . quilting keeps me sane. Judy L.