I was taught to quilt at a young age by my incredibly patient mother. Seriously, I remember her taking 30 minutes to set everything up to start a project and I would decide I was over it after 5 minutes of work. Motherhood must activate a superhero power when it comes to training your children. Not sure I would have the patience to teach a kid to hold a spoon, let alone the detail-oriented skill of sewing.

At the age of 9 I joined 4-H. It took one painful year to discover the Sewing Project was not my forte. Who knew a purple tie-dyed tank top and skort combo could hold so much self-discovery? Since quilting was my mother’s preferred craft, it was the next logical choice. That woman spent the next 20 years nurturing my passion for cutting up expensive fabric just to sew it back together.

My school years and 4-H years held many amazing mentors who taught, encouraged, and critiqued my skills. My junior year quilting brought me 2nd at State 4-H. My senior year allowed for two class periods in the morning of “Open Sewing”. High School isn’t too painful when you spend from 8AM-11:30AM quilting. My mother told me “Enjoy this time. You’ll never have time to quilt like this again”. HA I showed her.

Once “adulting” started my sewing machine followed me from dorms, to new houses (13 of them), to new towns (onto #4). Quilts got laid out on dirty concrete floors, twin beds, and sometimes never got laid out at all. I was lucky to make one a year. Although I still loved this hobby, the longer I was separated from it the deeper I pushed my passion inside.

It wasn’t until I moved back to my hometown and started working part time at the local quilt store that the flame of my quilting passion started burning a little brighter. My creativity started flowing. I started quilting again.

Surrounding myself with people who share my love for quilting is intoxicating. I love to talk fabric, patterns, styles, and techniques. I love seeing other’s art and learning from their experiences. I love to help people pick fabric. I love color and I love to see how color can affect the mood or expression of a quilt. However, as I worked with quilters around the area, I found many held a lot of self-doubt when it came to their craft.

“Oh I could never do that pattern, it’s past my skill level.”

“Oh I can’t coordinate colors. They never come out right.”

“I don’t want to quilt with other people. My techniques are wrong.”

My brain cannot comprehend. Creativity is essential to the soul. Things that are essential to the soul cannot be done wrong. There’s no mold that must fit in order for your work to be considered art. Why are these quilters holding themselves back by comparing themselves to others?

That’s what we are doing here. We are letting go of self-judgement (and maybe judgement of others, Karen). We are opening ourselves up to the universe and letting creativity soak through our veins like that glass of cheap vino.

I am no professional. If I had to describe my quilting I would say “Marginally close to average”. I break rules (Oh its bad for the machine to sew over pins?) and sometimes I cut corners (figuratively, but sometimes literally as well). The most heard phrase in my sewing room is “eh, good enough” (close 2nd - the F bomb). I sew things wrong sides together. I rip out seams. I rip out seams again. I go back to the quilt store because I cut wrong and now need more fabric.

But I keep quilting. I keep trying new things. New patterns. New techniques. I take classes (which I typically spend mentally telling the teacher how I could do it better). Most importantly, no matter what, I sew several times a week.

I want to help you discover the creativity that God gave you. I want to help you gain the confidence to step out of the box that you gave to yourself. Join me as I try new techniques, gush over fabric, and organize my sewing room. Let me remind you that your art is perfect in its imperfection.

It is going to be messy.

It is going to be awkward.

It is going to be amazing.