Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Quilting, Anyone?



I've been reading a series of books by Jennifer Chiaverini. It's based on a family of quilters who live at the Elm Creek Manor. I think you'd just call it the Elm Creek Quilts series. That would make sense. Anyway, my grandmother got me hooked on the books and I've been trying to catch up on the series over the last couple of weeks. Today I began book 14, entitled The Lost Quilter. It's a good series and I recommend it to anyone who's looking for something new to pick up and read. It's mostly a character series. I think Chiaverini is pretty clever in her approach because she jumps around to different characters' perspectives. Within one book, you can read the events from 8 or 9 different characters' POV. You get a great sense of who that character is. It's a good read. Plus, it totally gets me stoked to finish a bunch of projects I want to get done. I've decided that I'm going to quilt more.


My quilting experience has been very limited. My first quilt was guided by my best friend Cindy. I wanted to make a quilt for Josh. He had several T-shirts from his mission in South Africa that he kept, but didn't know what to do with. So, for his birthday a few years ago I decided to take those shirts and make a quilt out of them. I wish I had a picture. (I wish my camera wasn't broken too, but we can't have everything, can we?) Cindy helped me design the quilt, taught me how to use a rotary cutter (yes, I was that backwoods), and taught me how to use a sewing machine (I know, I know, I shake my head in disgust too). We took the shirts and bordered them with colors of the South African flag. It actually turned out pretty good. I was proud of myself. Quilt number two was the John Deere quilt I made for Matt.
That one took me nearly a year to make, mostly because I only really worked on it at Gramma's house. I loved going over there to work on it, though. It was the perfect excuse to hang out with her. I guess I didn't need an excuse, but it was easier to schedule time together that way. I think it's time for me to work on quilt number 3. If for no other reason, than to hang out with my grandma.

4 comments:

RNLambile said...

Too bad, you have to sell your house too fast and come live with me.

Lori said...

I started that series. I got as far as the library had of them. Which to say, wasn't very far. I read maybe up to 5. I thought they were pretty good too. I wish the library had all of them. I've been thinking about making a quilt or something too. We just got our new bed...YAY!!!... and I have no comforter for it. James said I should make a quilt. I would love to, but it will cost twice as much as buying one. So I'm a little torn. Besides, I already found a really cute one. Maybe I should just look for a really cute pattern that I might like more. Who knows, I guess I have some researching to do.

colds1 said...

Wow. Your best friend sounds really cool!

Tara Dawn said...

I think your husband is missing you.