What About ...... quilting

For years now I have watched my mother make quilt after quilt, table runner after table runner and I would always ask "Who's that for?" to which I received the stardard answer of "Oh, I don't know, I just felt like making it" I observed how her sewing room closet went from a spare bedroom closet to the point where the doors are off and the fabric overflows. I sat by silently as my daughter caught this fabric bug. I watched her fill a shoebox with fabric and then storage bin after storage bin. She would make a quilt, then a table runner, then a Christmas stocking. Again, I would ask "Who's that for?" and again she gave the same answer as my mother - "Oh, I don't know, I just felt like making it". That was it, this must be some kind of cult. Why do "these people" keep sewing all the projects when they don't know what they're gonna do with them?!?! Then I noticed it... everytime they would go somewhere together, somehow, there would always be a fabric store along the way that they would just have to stop at. This was getting serious now.

It was a very cold day in February while at camp, my mother tells me "there's a fabric store just down the road, I'd like to ride over and see". I figured there was nothin' better to do, so off we went - the quilter and the one who can clear a room when the sewing machine comes out. Mind you, I've tried my hand at sewing and it always ended with my husband gathering the kids and removing them from the room while I, determined as I was, was left sitting in the room by myself crying. It never went well and I have not touched a sewing machine in many years. Remember how I was talking about the cold day in February and the nice ride to the fabric store...... Yesterday my husband said to me "Who's that for?" (as I sat at my sewing machine starting quilt number 4!!)and my reply was, ME! I've caught the bug now, I catch myself sneeking into my sewing room and feeling the fabric and reading patterns. Only I can't seem to part with anything like my mother and daughter do. They give their treasures away and it brings tears to my eyes to think that I too, will someday, part with my treasures.

This is my quilt walk, done after I complete each quilt - Ya know, like the Miss America walk after the crowning! STOP YOUR LAUGHING!!

                                      

So now the questions..... What is about sewing the slowly crawls into the soul and takes over? Is it the creative part that is jumping out to show the world or is it the diligence that watches something build from start to finish? Or is it both that may have been hiding behind the heart waiting for the opportunity to appear on the stage and once there keeps jumping out in front of the curtains as they are pulled shut. So, What About..... your creativity and diligence - it may not be quilting but what is it that crawls into your soul and fills your head with ideas?