I don't consider myself a quilter, (I think of quilters as artists that follow patterns and have studied and learned the art of quiltmaking and therefore know what they're doing), but I have made some quilts none the less. Above are two quilts that I have made- one a simple square patchwork I made for my family to use and my daughter to inherit, made before my son was even born, and the bottom one is that Big Crazy Summer Journal Quilt I took on a year or two ago now.
When my son was born I made him a baby quilt made of patchwork squares and alphabet letters. I went looking for it today, but couldn't find it anywhere. (It's somewhere, I'll find tucked away safely one day.) All my friends that had children at the time recieved the alphabet baby quilts too. It was back before I had gone digital, so I don't have any of those photos readily available either.
Recently, my firend Charlotte gifted me with her second fabric line and I wanted to make her something out of it. What started as a small pillow or journal cover has turned into a little blanket, or lap quilt. I ordered more of her fabric and grabbed what I had left of her first line and began a crazy quilt of sorts. I'm still working on it (shown above), but will show it here for sure when done.
Anyway...while I was working on that quilt, I started thinking about the quilt I had started long ago, intending it to be another family quilt used regularly by all so that my son will have a quilt from his childhood too. Out it came and I finished piecing the top last night. I'm going to batch quilt I think- do the stages- top, binding, quilting etc. at the same time vs. one all the way through. I plan on showing finsihed photos of it too, when done.
But late one night, while playing with the pretty fabrics, an idea came to me and in order to be able to move on from obsessed with the idea, I pursued it. I kept picturing a white quilt with pinwheels scattered on it. By starting some pinwheels, I felt like I could then get that "I can't wait to try this idea" out of the way and finish up the other quilts. But then again, Maybe I should finish this top and batch all three. :)
Yes, I'm a crazy person.
But you already knew that by now.
All this play at quilting has really got me more interested in it than ever. Currently, I just muddle through and try to figure things out as I go along, but I'm feeling a desire to learn more, understand more. Last night on my instagram feed I showed a picture of my completed top for my son's quilt, and when someone asked for a good starting quilting how to book, Jemellia suggested this one. Maybe I'll start there...