Produce Haunt Box

Over on my SAQA list, there is a theme going on about our first quilts.  Really fun to see how each of these people started out, so I guess I'll join in with my first piece too.  Apropo to the above poster, this is about my own family fairy tale when I was naive enough to think all was sunshine and rainbows-

1975, a wall quilt for my first baby, mounted on a 48" round stretcher I had to roll down the street from Fabrications*, the store I bought it in.  Imagine it-  9 months pregnant rolling this home...  Oh yeah, and it's trapunto-  all the little trees and dragons are stuffed.  And the oh-so-beautiful ruffle, 100% polyester, was a cut up maternity shirt I had popped out of two months before.  It was so much fun making this, basically because I was completely unbound by rules and history and proper ways of doing things.

*Imagine, I am still friendly with the daughter of the woman who owned Fabrications who went on to be a big wig in the Society of Arts and Crafts.  Funny how circles complete themselves, isn't it?

 Amanda's Quilt

But it took me five years to take a quilting class and I made another sampler for my daughter when she was about 5.  I got bored with making blocks-  all hand pieced, so rebelled and used plain muslin blocks to speed up the process-  we weren't 'allowed' to use a machine which I thought was just plain dumb.  And I swore I'd never make another one.  Until:

  Nate's Quilt

My son, five at the time, wanted his own quilt, so I graphed up his kindergarten picture and sewed one up, no hand work thank yew..., a quilt of his face.  No computer generated plan, all on graph paper with a little 'key' of sample fabrics glued to the edge as I went.  It was entered and won a ribbon in a local craft show, about 1982.  And I realized that using a machine was OK, so AWAY I WENT!  By then I had found some quilting friends, most from the miserable class I had taken, who had formed a guild and started inviting speakers and talking about shows.  Shows?  It had never occurred to me that other people were doing quilts for walls and not caring about what was done in 1865 other than as a point of interest.  Someone dragged me to the Quilters Connection show and from there on in I was hooked.

You can stop reading now if you're from the SAQA list, because I don't much talk about quilts any more.  Instead I talk about Gummy Bears, puppies, and chairs.  Thanks for stopping by.   S

Protect yourself with this helmet made by gummy bear artist Crummy Gummy. Also, be sure to check his other work at his website    

Oh, I can so identify with this mom, and I only had 1/5th the kids.

Hand hewn Cardboard chair, and the video of it in progress

Death Star lawn chair

In my sex fantasy, nobody ever loves me for my mind. Nora Ephron