Just So You Know

What hobbies, these are obsessions...

My oldest son is the reason that I started quilting. Four years ago he wanted to make a quilt in response to his teachers request for a project related to 2 Caldecott books the child was to choose and read. The two books he chose were The Quiltmaker’s Gift and Joseph had a Little Overcoat. He was certain that he could make a quilt. I took him to a quilt shop open house, I was sure they would tell him that he was too small and too young to make a quilt. Instead, they signed him up for an “I spy” quilt class. He ended up having a birthday party and I went to the class. I completed the quilt top in the 2 hour class period. So the teacher stayed a bit later, explained how to put the 3 pieces together and explained how to machine quilt the “sandwich.” 22 hours later I had a completed quilt. My son finished his top in about 16 hours. I had it quilted professionally. I have to admit that 22 hours compared to the 100’s of hours a stitching piece takes was quite intoxicating. It led to Quilt of the Month classes, an appliqué class, a strip piecing class, a crazy quilting class, and lots and lots of unfinished projects. A couple of months ago, it led to joining the Sandy Stitchers which is a local chapter of the Utah Quilt Guild. For the Christmas Party, I ended up bringing the reason that I started quilting and he brought the first quilt that he made. Apparently, a 12 year old male quilter is quite a hit because people kept giving him free stuff and trying to get him to eat more food.
You would think, however, that I would remember what happens when I take my oldest son with me to quilt shops. I have 2 unstarted fully kitted quilts upstairs in my stash. One is a paper pieced jewel tone green quilt and the other is a Round the World quilt with the Quiltmaker’s Gift fabric. Now I have 3 unstarted fully kitted projects. DD#1 found a book on making fat Quarter quilts and the rest of the supplies to make a quilt from the pattern book. I ended up walking out $50 poorer but, DD#1 has one of his Christmas presents. Guess what we’re doing on New Year’s Eve?

posted by Shondratasha @ 01:11