old masters

Last summer I spent a week in western New York in a workshop at Quilting by the Lake. The instructor was Betty Busby.

da Vinci

Klimt

Monet

Renoir

O'Keefe

Munch

what we learn from sewing and quilting.

Night and Day

Many people tell me that they don't have the patience to make a quilt.  Sometimes I get the feeling that they think it's way too boring and pedestrian and crafty for them. They lead much more exciting sophisticated lives than people like me who like nothing better than an evening cutting fabric into little bits and then putting them together again.

Perhaps they are right. But I don't really think that an evening at the mall or perhaps the casino is more fun than what I do.

 I have learned a lot by making quilts.

i have learned that accuracy counts.

i have studied geometry in a real life situation. and i know how to use it.

i have learned how to simplify my life by taking one step at a time.

i have learned to ask for help when the project is too big or too unwieldly for one person.

i have learned that rotary blades are very sharp.

i have learned that being an introvert can be a gift.

i have learned that patience is a virtue.

i have learned to see design possibilities everywhere and how to interpret them into my quiltmaking.

i have made many friends and taken many adventures because i am a quilter.

There's more than one way to skin a cat

My father had a grade five education in a tiny one room school house yet he taught himself enough geometry to be able to make complicated staircases that were perfectly aligned. The first time he left the farm--it wasn't really a farm: it was the train station in the middle of the farmers field where his father was the station master---was to go to the army recruiting station and then to basic training before being sent to Europe to fight in WW2. He was 18 years old.

One of his favourite sayings was that there was more than one way to skin a cat. Really who skins cats? where did that saying come from? and why?

But he was right. Most often there is more than one way to do just about anything. Certainly there is more than one way to make a quilt for good example.

I have been working on another double wedding ring quilt. it's large and colourful. A woman in our sewing group came to see what I was making. She said "Oh a double wedding ring quilt. That's a pattern that's been on my list for a long time. I am going to make one soon. But mine will have all pieced arcs," and she walked away.

hmm. Was that a put down? I didn't make a real double wedding ring quilt--I cheated again? only pieced arcs make real double wedding ring quilts. Solid arcs are just about like using a cheater panel. and calling it a quilt.

Oh yes.It was a putdown.Not the first from this woman. She knows the way to make a quilt. The right way. and she's not afraid to let me know. She's one of the quilt police. She's there to protect and serve the status quo. The one and only way. the true north of quiltdom. Probably the next time she comes to sewing day she will have a perfectly executed double wedding ring quilt made. And it will be lovely.

The thing about making a quilt is that you can do it the way that you want to do it. Sure it's good to listen to someone who calls herself an expert. and it's certainly good to follow advice from experts if it works for you. If you have figured out another way to make a quilt and you like the way it looks...then do it your way. Follow your own expert advice.


And if you find yourself offering more advice than was solicited, think carefully.