Follow Your Bliss

Follow Your Bliss

"To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose". Eccl 3.1

Saturday 13 April 2013

My First Quilt


I had always promised myself that when I eventually gave up working I would take up sewing crafts and making patchwork quilts. According to Joseph Campbell if you "Follow your Bliss, doors will open where there were only walls".   The title of my blog - because when I decided to leave my job and began in ernest to do more of the things that I wanted to do, things that bring me joy and satisfaction. Spending time with nice people, like-minded people who shared my passions. Suddenly, call it what you will, serendipity or chance, things started to change around me.  New people and circumstances appeared from nowhere, my first was a chance encounter with a lady called Suki in Clonakilty, then other strangers, like a new neighbour who had just moved into the house across the road from us. A knock on our front door one Sunday evening, to introduce herself and her husband. I invited them in and she commented on the fabric I had out on the kitchen table. I explained that I was trying to teach myself how to appliqué.  She told me that her Aunt was taking classes locally. She passed on the name of her Aunt's teacher and I began my new hobby the following term.

"When the student is ready, the teacher appears" 

Suddenly, people, books, circumstances etc began to flow into my life. I can only describe it as magic!  I love sewing and always have, but now I am doing it for real.   My three passions singing, sewing and cleaning (not necessarily in that order), I inherited from my Mother who had a beautiful soprano voice and with the house in order, was at her sewing machine making our clothes, most days when we came home from primary school. Apologies while I digress - I will never forget the hats she made for my sister and I, they were copied from a picture she had seen in an advertisement for Switzer's, in the newspaper. My mother made them for wearing to mass on Sundays.  They were lovely hats tan with a navy trim.  Mine was a bit loose and when my hair was freshly washed, used to fall off my head sometimes when receiving holy communion, I remember I used to feel so embarrassed.

I began to enjoy sewing and remember making clothes for my dolls on a little pink toy sewing machine which Santa brought me when I was 8 years.

Back to the subject, I was well able to do hand sewing when repairing things like hems etc. but I had a lot to learn about patchwork quilting.  My first quilt was very challenging, as I had never used a real sewing machine except in class at school.

The quilt was called a sampler (see pic above) and I had to learn the skills and techniques required to make a quilt. I found it very challenging with my limited knowledge of sewing, but eventually all the pieces of the craft (pardon the pun) started to make sense.  I learned wonderful new skills and a bank of knowledge about sewing.   Thank you Terri, my talented teacher.   I hope to rejoin Terri's class for the Sept-Dec 2013 term to make one of her lovely designed quilts.

In the meantime, I have a lot of crafts to make from a beautiful book entitled Pretty Patchwork Gifts by Helen Phillips which my Daughter Audrey bought me for Mothers Day this year, and a few patchwork quilts for myself.

Thank you for visiting.

All the best for now.

S.




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