Quilting is a huge part of my life. When I am not writing, I am quilting in one form or another. That means I might be shopping for fabric, or cutting the pieces for a new quilt, or sewing those pieces together (actually called piecing), or sewing the top-batting-backing layers together which is the quilting process. There is a quilt in every room of my home, yes, one even hangs in the kitchen.

Most of the quilts I make are the bed type, to be used until they wear out. I give them as gifts for new babies, weddings and anniversaries. I also give them to my Veteran friends. The one below has the 13th Armored Division patch recreated for a WWII vet that belongs to one of the writing groups I attend. He was overwhelmed when he saw it.  It’s the reaction of the people I give them to that makes all the hours of  work worth it. To me it’s fun and rewarding.

WWII quilt

An avid quilter like myself likes the creativity of the process. I hear some quilters say they can only work with colors they like. That doesn’t apply to me. I work with any color and I pick the fabrics for whomever the quilt is going to be given to. The quilt shop owners in my locale know me so when I was buying very dark, (boring to me) fabrics for a specific project they asked what I was making because the choices were not my usual fare. They take an interest, mostly because of how often they see me and how well I feed their cash register.

I also teach quilting classes and take quilting classes. I sew with three different groups of ladies. We call our gatherings sew days. One group is past students of mine, one is a group that met while taking a class and the third is my past fellow employees from a quilt shop that closed recently. We share tips and tricks of quilting, bounce ideas off each other about quilting, life and food. It’s our social network.

I have received multiple e-mails for quilt shop sales and special events tomorrow in celebration of National Quilting Day. It will be a great day to visit any quilt shop whether you are a quilter or not.