True Confessions

As I'm sure you do, I enjoy perusing lots of blogs, in particular, quilt blogs.  Some of them have narratives about trips, tutorials, free patterns, recipes or any combination of the aforementioned items.  Each blog reveals a little bit of the writer and I get to know them better.  So, rather than have you sift through my posts to find my quilty skeletons, I've decided to list my top ten quilting quirks:

1.  My husband purchased my first quilt class. (So, it's all his fault!)  We were married in the Spring of 1992 and for Christmas that year, I was gifted a hand-piecing class at Temple University.  When I asked him how he knew I would like to learn how to quilt, he replied he noticed I admired a quilt once.  (That was when life was simpler and we were able to give each other our undivided attention--in other words, before children.)  I gained two lifelong loves that year--my dear sweet husband and quilting!

April 11, 1992--seems like yesterday!

 2.  There are eight sewing machines, two embroidery machines, one serger and one longarm in my house.  And most of them have names.

3.  My husband build an addition onto our house to accommodate my longarm.

4.  My sewing space is only big enough for one person.  We finished half the basement and the kids got a majority of the space.  The Container Store and I managed to squash a sizable stash, sewing table, build-in cutting surface/cabinets, two bookcases, design wall and ironing board into a ten foot by nearly twelve foot space.  (Huh!  I thought my little corner of the basement was quite small, but when looking at the numbers, it's not too bad!  Wonder why it seems so very, very tiny......?)

Looking in from the kids' area..

Looking at my cutting surface...

The stash and bookcases....

Batting and trims storage......

5.  I have a raging quilt magazine addiction!  The current list of periodicals coming to our home is Quiltmaker, Irish Quilting, The Quilt Life and am a charter member of American Patchwork and Quilting (that's 20 years of magazines!).

6.  I have no more room on the walls to hang quilts and am pretty sure my dear husband is unwilling to put a second addition on our house.

With a bit of rearranging, am hoping to get "Sedona Delight" on a wall somewhere in here!

7.  Both of our daughters can sew and have made quilts.  One would sew all the time and the other would rather not.  In fact, the older non-sewer was heard to say as a six year old, "Why can't you be like other mothers and not sew?"  On the other end of the spectrum, the younger loves to go to The Village Quilter to buy fat quarters.  When I asked if she had a project in mind, she didn't hesitate in her response--"Do I need to have a project in mind in order to buy a fat quarter?"  Hearing your own quilty words coming out of your daughter's mouth.....priceless!

8.  My four year old nephew already has four quilts.

9.  Every vacation includes a visit to a local quilt shop.  There is only one quilt store in South America and I've been there. 

Santiago, Chile:  These ladies are lovely!!

10.  There are quilt blocks on my mailbox because I put them there.  Save yourself some time and don't paint your mailbox.  Use the new duct tape sheets--they are far less work and don't fade.

Sort of glows, doesn't it?

There you have it--all my quilty skeletons!  Well, maybe most of them.  Do you have any quilty quirks that you'd be willing to share?  Do you wait until it's dark outside before bringing in the bags from the quilt store so your significant other/children/neighbors don't see how much fabric you've purchased?  Did you build a shed in the backyard or rent a storage space for your stash?

To me, quilting does so much to benefit our psyche and to spread good will to those around us, all our quirks work together for the greater good--sort of like the patchwork we enjoy so much!