To quilt or not to quilt

Like not quilting is even an option! Growing up in Oklahoma, I learned that the winters are usually either mild and everyone complains because there is no snow or it's as if Mother Nature said, "I thought last year you WANTED snow so here is a few feet with some ice thrown on top!" Gee, aren't you a sweet lady?! 

One of my absolute favorite parts of winter was curling up under the heirloom quilts before the fireplace at my Grandma Selby's home. Those quilts were so big and comfy soft and you felt like the women who made them so long ago were hugging you and making you feel so centered. I love those quilts and always beg my Grandma to leave them to me when she passes. I hope that's many many years to come. In the meantime, I fill my Pinterest feed with quilts that I want to make and quilts that I'm in complete awe of because they are so intricate and gorgeous and OMG, how does she do that? I haven't used a sewing machine since high school. Until....

You know those groups on Facebook that you can find items for sale, trade, barter? Kind of like Craigslist but seemingly safer because you can SEE the person you are buying from? I'm sure that there's only like one or two crazies on there trying to sell their "stuff" and it's completely safe.... Anyway, safety first - never go alone blah blah blah. This post isn't about that. This post is about that day last spring I saw a sewing machine for sale. Something just came over me and I had.to.have it NOW!

I get my new toy home and discovered that it didn't include a manual. What? Who sells their items without a manual? Jeez, don't you know how to keep anything, sewing-machine-selling lady?! Thank goodness for Google is all I'm saying! I set that baby up and went to town sewing on some random piece of fabric just to get the hang of it again and promptly broke a needle. That was so fun. Not really. Luckily, sewing-machine-selling lady left some spare needles in the little box underneath. So I was back at it and loving every whirring minute of it!

Since then I have made both of my girls a quilt, my mother a quilt, but my first quilt was a baby quilt that I have no intention on giving or, in this case, burdening someone with. It's ok for a first quilt, I suppose, but I think that might be one of those things best left tucked away. Far away.

I have another quilt top made but I'm just not at the point yet with her to put her with a backing. She and I didn't agree exactly on lining up corners. She wanted to just be willy-nilly and I wanted to be very strict and matchy-matchy. I think she won but I'm going to make her wait for her backing. I'll let you know how that goes.

As my skills and talent grow, my quilts will get better. Practice makes perfect and I'm all about practicing. However, it's been several weeks since I last touched my sewing machine, simply because my mother's quilt was such a huge accomplishment for me that I'm still basking in the glow. It's either that or I'm in denial about being having "Quilter's" block. What to quilt next? For whom? Christmas is coming at me like a freight train and I'm just pinning away on Pinterest like someone really wants a beach quilt for Christmas.

I'm a people-pleaser by nature so maybe if someone TOLD me to quilt them something, I would get off my lazy rear. Maybe I'll just pretend that someone is goading me. Or maybe I will take it full-circle and quilt something for my Grandma. After all, she started this. It's all her fault - I should bless her with my gratitude. I should and I shall! (Can you hear my self-pep talk?) Imagine me jumping up and down and clapping my hands a la football team huddle because....Boomer Sooner! Anyway, I'm going to stop thinking and Just DO IT! Knowing my Grandma as I do, she'll love it or pretend so because she loves me.

And I'm going to test different signatures out so here: