She was coming to town in two days and I wanted her to see my quilt--finished! I'm slow. No, that's not right. That quilt wasn't finished because I was also working on at least ten others at the same time, all in various stages of completion. Completion--that's an unfamiliar word in my quilter's lexicon. But when I want to activate it, boy, does it take on new meaning!This quilt in question was a beautiful 12 block sampler from Eleanor Burns' Quilt In A Day Calendar. A block a month, that's all. Twelve months, you're done. Well, 30+ months later I needed to do my borders to have it finished for her to see. So, I pulled out the border fabric I purchased 3 years ago, and...I was short 1/4 yard. And that fabric was a remnant then so, I KNEW there wasn't any more of that left anywhere in the western hemisphere.Panic. Now that word was about to take on new meaning. I refused to walk away from my cupboards full of fabric and buy new border material.What was I to do?Finishing that quilt reminded me of the rut I was in. I realized that I was operating under a set of weights that were threatening to squash the creative life out of me. I had to decide if that quilt was going to control its outcome or if I was. In other words--who was the boss? And was this going to be another quilt or another QUILT? What are these weights that can stifle our next enterprise?
- TRADITION: That's a neutral word. It just means a way of doing something. "We've always done it this way." Maybe it's time to do it another way. The danger of tradition? Tradition followed mechanically and thoughtlessly requires no creativity. It doesn't contain a piece of your heart, your emotion, a touch of your soul. Ask yourself, "Do I want people to sense a part of me in that quilt?" I touched it; it is an extension of me.
- PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS: "I've always believed this." Belief is a precious commodity, but only as good as the object of that belief. And any belief worthy of my faith has to withstand intense scrutiny, relentless questioning, deep digging to find deeper roots. What are some quilter's preconceived notions?
- Only use 100% cotton all the time. Sometimes a desired color only comes in a blend. If it's a wall quilt -- go ahead and use that lame. Are there really Cotton-Police ready to issue you a fine?
- All borders must be mitered.
- All quilts must go on beds.
- All borders should match.
- Machine quilting is inferior to hand quilting.
- Decorator fabric will contaminate a "real" quilt.
- The quilt back must be all the same fabric.
Am I saying to break the rules? The bigger question is -- What are the rules and who made them in the first place? Some quilters hold tenaciously to a list of criteria, that if not met, a quilt is not a "quilt". But if a quilt is an expression of you, who's to call it a "non-quilt"?
- I'LL DO IT MY WAY:"I don't need anyone else's input." Oh, what I would have missed had I not joined a quilt guild a few years back! I have a tendency to think I have considered all possibilities and no one has anything new to tell me. I'm sure glad God spread knowledge around all over the earth and didn't concentrate it in one place. Some of those quilts that were never completed were salvaged because I brought them to Show & Tell and I was given expert advice on how to fix, change, and redeem some of my "errors." And here I thought the answer was in a book or magazine.
- I MADE A QUILT ONCE: Don't believe that your best work is in the past. The same person who made that Five-Time blue ribbon championship quilt is still capable of wowing them again. Only this time, it will be better. It's been said that real runners are tying their shoes focusing on the next race they're going to run. We don't live in the past, so we shouldn't focus on it. Tie your shoes, get on the mark, do something new, believing something fantastic will emerge.
- SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME QUILTING:"Are you nuts?" you say. "I can't get enough time to quilt. I have a family, so I have to cook and clean and drive my kids everywhere. I don't quilt enough!" Well, I'm your clone. But, good news: some of my best ideas for new quilts and solutions for problem quilts have come when I was doing a non-quilt activity. Driving a car pool I see billboards with interesting geometric designs that call out "new block!" Cereal boxes in grocery stores, my kids' coloring books, seed catalogs and magazines have been known to inspire a new applique design. Clothing racks in department stores give me new color combinations that are creative and refreshing changes over my shy and tired, ho-hum ways. And the tiles in bathroom floors and wall paper in hotel rooms have sent me scrambling for a pad and paper. Everywhere I go, everything I see, contributes to my stockpile of ideas that produce new quilts that say they uniquely belong to me.
So, with only two days before the quilting editor came, how did I finish that quilt? I took a deep breath, stepped outside my circle of confidence and tried something fresh and unfamiliar. I hacked and chopped that border fabric and remixed it with some wild new pieces from my fabric stash. I turned a dull, stodgy, lackluster border into something visually stimulating. There were no mitered corners...I didn't have the yardage. I machine quilted the remaining unquilted sections. I wasn't embarrassed about the pieced back (I didn't have to confess it was that way because I ran out of the main fabric). And its purity wasn't contaminated by that one poly/cotton blend floral -- THAT fabric brought the "zing" necessary to transform the quilt from ordinary to extraordinary.The only limits we have in our quilting enterprises are those weights that pull us continually back into the familiar. Simply use the familiar as your springboard to launch yourself into a "quilting encounter of the creative mind." The results will invigorate you. And you may actually complete some of those unfulfilled dreams sitting quietly in your sewing cupboard. When Jean saw my newly completed quilt she loved it and even photographed it!
Back to Quilter By Design Homesite
This page has been accessed times