Today’s guest is Sheila Painter, who belongs
to one of my quilt guilds. Sheila does a good job of introducing herself so....here is Sheila's contribution to keeping the IHAN® blog moving along :
Sheila poses with four charity quilts she made, all strip-pieced.
I’ve been sewing since I was a little girl, but only quilting
about nine years now. I absolutely LOVE
sewing quilts, and churn them out like crazy.
But I admit that, while I say I love quilting, I don’t really love the
quilting part of the process. As a
matter of fact, there’s quite a bit I don’t enjoy: pin-basting, applique, hand quilting, and hand
sewing on binding. But sit me at a
sewing machine and let me sew bits of fabric together into quilt tops, and I’m
in heaven.
The speedy arrowhead pattern is a quick and easy design for a quilt.
So I was thinking about this recently, and realized
that all the things I don’t enjoy about making a quilt are the parts that take a
really long time. I want to be quick and
efficient. I sew most of my bindings
down by machine now, hire longarmers to quilt my quilt whenever I can justify
the expense, and enjoy starting a quilt with orphan blocks so it will go
together quicker. If there’s a shortcut,
I’ll take it. Plenty of quilters like me
have discovered wonderful timesaving techniques, like chain-sewing,
fast-flying-geese methods, ways to sew blocks or borders with a minimum of
pinning, etc. We can buy kits where the
pattern and fabric are all pre-chosen for us…. imagine that! Then there’s the whole world of precut
fabrics….strips, squares and triangles, and more…. already cut for me!
Sheila's orphan block quilt....I just appliqued them down on background fabric.
But fabric manufacturers didn’t come up with these
timesavers just for ME….no, lots of busy, working people of today appreciate
the convenience of buying fabric pieces all ready to sew together. Kelly sells lots of time-saving notions on her
website I Have A Notion (hint, hint!) to speed up the process, including those nifty machines
that even do the cutting for us with dies!
Here's a quilt-as-you-go I made, using my scraps.
What really got me thinking is, if we all love making
quilts so much, why don’t we just slow down and enjoy the process? The whole concept of making a quilt is cutting
up fabric and sewing it back together into something beautiful, warm and
cozy. Why does it have to be fast? Is my life really better because I use the
leader/ender method when machine piecing to have my next quilt already begun? Choosing a quilt pattern that sews together
really fast might not be my best choice. Was my goal really to finish three quilts last
month? Or would TWO have been enough if
I didn’t shortcut my way through them??
This one was made with strip-piecing, for my granddaughter on her
first birthday. It was the THIRD quilt I have made for the baby: baby
quilt, crawling quilt, and first birthday present!
Using notions that save time (which I Have a Notion has lots of) is a wonderful thing, so we should embrace them. But let’s slow down and as they say, smell
the roses. I will make a special effort
to put my personal touch on my quilts.
If it involves threading a needle, so be it. Our quilts will probably outlast us by a
hundred years. Long after we’re gone, our
ancestors will still enjoy the beauty and love that went into the quilts that
were handed down to them. They won’t
notice or care if the quilts were made with shortcuts. But they will appreciate that we enjoyed the
process of quilting enough to make these lovely heirloom pieces. I pledge to put more time and love into my
quilts…..will you?
(Written By Sheila Painter, OH)
Kelly's Comments:
Well, knowing Sheila for the past few years, I have to say I was very surprised to read this post she submitted. Sheila routinely brings anywhere from 2-4 and sometimes more quilts to our guild meetings for show and tell. I've always had the idea that quilting should be a process, not necessarily quick....but a process to be enjoyed. I'm not saying Sheils isn't capable of slowing down....LOL....I'm just looking forward to seeing what that means to her....giggles. She may feel empty handed without all those quilts for show and tell.
What ever the time table you have for yourself....I do hope you enjoy the entire process as much as possible :)
Smiles,
Kelly
