What Quilting Can Teach You

November 4, 2009

Many of you may not quite get the love for quilts that some people have. People love quilts for different reasons, perhaps their grandmother quilted, or someone gave them a special gift of a quilt one time; whatever the reason may be, once a quilt holds a special place in your heart, you have an appreciation for all quilts!

Several years ago I wanted my girls and myself to learn some sewing skills and I thought quilting would be easier than sewing garments…little did I know I had sparked a whole new passion in our lives!

We chose to join the local quilter’s guild, and because of our flexibility because we home school it worked out great for us! We made a lot of new friends and learned that quilting can be as simple as piecing a patchwork together or it can be as complex as creating a masterpiece to hang on a museum wall.

To be honest, this post could go on all day about the different aspects of quilting and the things you can learn from it.

Learning how to quilt has taught my girls (and myself) the importance of:

Attentiveness: Paying attention to detail, and what happens when you don’t!

Diligence: Finishing what you start and how to overcome mistakes.

Creativity: How to take scraps and create something useful and beautiful.

Charity: Always wondering what kind of quilt we can make for the newest baby, as a wedding gift or Christmas gift. We have had the privileged of giving quilts to people that have cried when they received their quilts, some of which were made from their loved one’s clothing.

Industry: We’ve made many quilts as special orders and sold them. The most amazing one (well it was two of them) is told HERE.

Frugality: Quilts and quilted gifts can be made using fabric from things you would have normally tossed. Quilting fabric can come from sheets, curtains, shirts and skirts!

YES! Quilting will teach character traits!

As I’ve said, I could go on all day.

This is the Log Cabin pattern.

A couple weeks ago as the cool weather arrived I pulled out this quilt to put on our bed. Under it is another flannel quilt that Olivia made, and then our flannel sheets. A quilt has a different feel to it than a blanket or comforter has, it’s kind of hard to explain…you have to experience it!

Last year a man asked us to make him a quilt, he said he didn’t care what it looked like, he just wanted it to feel like his grandmother’s quilts, the kind of quilt that wraps it’s self around you!

This is a slide show of last year’s quilt show our guild held.

Once you learn the basics, the sky is the limit!!!

Here is my quilting blog…which needs to be updated!

I’ve made a couple of T-Shirt Quilts and several Memory Quilts using photos.

 Olivia has made a few of these quilted wall hangings and sold them. She has entered them at the county fair and at a couple quilt shows.  At our quilt show a couple years ago a lady approached her and wanted to buy it. She paid $75 for it. Olivia had about $10 in it, plus her time.

Topics: Quilting | 1 Comment »