Hi all,
I have been quilting for 40 years. It is funny I don't see myself as 57. I guess it hits home the most when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and see my mother . In the last 8 years I have suffered from a chronic autoimmune disease that has made me really get my life in order. I come at everything from a new perspective. I have kind of trained my mind to take me somewhere more pleasant when I have to endure things that are unpleasant or irritating. It works for the everyday chores we all have to do like cleaning, food prep and household chores like cleaning the cat box. I kind of focus on the end result and the other less pleasant parts seem to go by quickly. As a result of my illness I have to pace anything I do or pay in pain.
What I like best about quilting is picking out the fabrics, imagining the finished results and the hand quilting. I have enough finished quilts to be able to change my bedding probably ten times a year. I also could paper my walls with smaller items. I have given away a multitude of quilts to friends and relatives and regulary make Linus and other chairty quilts for various causes. I hand quilt for other people as that is what I do best.
THis week I am making lap robes and bed covers for our wounded soldiers in hospitals. The amputees like to have something to cover their injuries when they have visitors. It makes their visitors more comfortable and lets them focus on their loved ones and less on their obvious injuries. I had fun going through my stash and pulling out blues, reds and mixtures that looked even the least bit patriotic. I tore the fabrics into various width strips and peiced them together on my serger. Then I cut theminto 12 inch blocks and sewed them together into either a lap robe or a cover that would fit a twin bed top. I don't use batting just a flannel back to keep them from sliding off and make them cozy feeling. I do some basic machine quilting with a decorative stitch just to hold the layers together. My hope is that they will survive the commercial laundries of the hosptitals.
My reward is that I am making room in my stash to enable me to purchase more fabrics. Just what I need, DUH!
I guess I could say my yucky part is finishing something I was never interested in in the first place. I belong to two guilds and am sometimes obligated to make a block or blocks for someone else that I would never dream of making otherwise.
mpspeedy