My first quilt was a gift for my mother. They said I couldn’t get it done by Christmas, especially since I had never quilted before, but I was determined to prove them wrong. I bought all my supplies from a little, local quilting store- Tiny Stitches – and picked their brains for every tip and scrap of information I could garnish. When the sweet ladies at Tiny Stitches heard that I was planning to HAND QUILT my “starry sky” lap quilt by Christmas, I could see the corners of their mouths begin to twitch and desperately resist the urge to curve skyward. I didn’t have the slightest clue of what kind of a ride I was in for, but I was resolved. Praise the Lord, when my Grandmother heard of the new adventure I was embarking on, she gave me the wonderful gift of a brand new Singer sewing machine as an early Christmas Present. Bless her soul!
So with (I believe it was) three weeks to measure, cut and stitch these “fat quarters” together into some semblance of a beautiful lap quilt, I set myself up in the living room, and a tad in the kitchen, and little bit in the bedroom, and got to work. I fought with the sewing machine for several days until I had tamed it- or beat it, rather- into submission. I made a few mistakes here, bought some new tools and fabric, made a few mistakes there, fixed them, and before I knew it, I had somewhere around 18 perfect squares, all sewn together beautifully, pinned to batting, pinned to backing. Ready to go. Ready to be a quilt!
And a week left. Maybe less.
I took my squares back down to the store so the ladies could inspect (and cross my fingers admire) it, and wouldn’t you know it, she says “okay….don’t get too upset…. you’re going to have to redo this. See, you have (Charlie Brown) *wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha* because you have to *wha-wha-wha* before you *wha-wha-wha-wha-wha* in order to *wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha*.” My eyes began to glaze over…. I only had a week left, maybe less, and I felt like I’d gotten nothing done! I had been working so hard and yet I was running in place! My proverbial tires were spinning!
Frustrated and feeling defeated, I returned home to fix my mistakes. Which in retrospect were not that bad or difficult to fix, it was just my pride that had taken a beating. I was privately hoping to be some young quilting prodigy, incapable of making mistakes, and my dreams had not come to fruition. But I hit the ground running again, and even as I fixed the problems and began moving forward, I felt my pride returning! This was still a possibility! I got all the pins correctly placed, cut my edging out properly, and worked right up to Christmas day, right until the very middle of our family Christmas party (which was not a little awkward, mind you….) until I sewed the very last stitch.
I PROUDLY brought my quilt into the family room, held it up for the entire family to see, and said “well mom” with a sigh of relief, “Merry Christmas!”
And that very day, my mom learned how to pretend to be cold.
Love you, mom

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