Why make more?

On Sunday I popped into my friends house to drop off her Christmas presents and say Merry Christmas before they disappeared to family for the break.

I told her about the yummy fabrics that had arrived from Fabricworm and how lush they are. Then I said I have a couple of designs in my head and would she mind if I gifted her a quilt of one of those designs... I basically need to find homes for the designs in my head - we are kinda a bursting at home!

At this point she asked 'why keep making them if you have run out of space for them?'

Honestly, she did.... she actually suggested I stop making quilts.... my heart stopped for 30 seconds!

Once I had picked my chin off the floor and restarted my heart, I tried to explain that it simply isn't an option!

It got me to thinking though about life as a quilter....

How many projects do I have on the go at the moment?

Well, there is the hexagon quilt, the HST demonstration quilt, a little girls quilt, Tula Pink Scraps quilt and a hexagon patchwork top that needs finishing.....

 



How much fabric do I have?

That is a difficult question to answer and would mean looking through my teaching stash, my secret stash, my secret, secret stash and the scraps shelf... oh and the buckets of upholstery weight fabrics.... best not think about that too much... but a girl can never have to much....

The latest bundle from Floressence

How many quilting books do I own?

Again that is a tough question to answer, it could be close to 50... from my first book 17 years ago to the most recent color, block and quilt by Emily Cier.

Available from all good indie bookshops!

Do I need them all?  Yes.... they are a constant source of inspiration, bedtime reading and yumminess... I actually have a pile next to my bed that I constantly rotate....

Why make more???

I dream in quilts. Often I wake up with a new idea in my head, a new goal.

I dream about colours, shapes, designs... I think about colour and texture all the time.

Each quilt is an extension of my skills, it pushes my skill further and allows me to explore those ideas in my head.

I have tried to not make quilts, it makes my brain hurt and actually I feel sad. That is what happened with my handmade bag business. I loved making bags, but they took me away from making quilts and I got more and more unhappy... the minute I decided to swap and make quilts and teach everything rebalanced..

It is hard to explain to non-quilters, but it is like being an artist of any form. You have the need to create, an overwhelming desire to allow the ideas in your head flow into your medium, be it clay, fabric or paint..... You have to create otherwise it hurts...

Quilting is like that, you have to create otherwise it hurts, the ideas get stifled and everything gets squeezed in until you release the creativity and make a quilt...

So will I ever stop making quilts?

No. When I do my world will no longer make sense, and I will lose a huge part of who I am...

So to solve the shortage of space I need to gift them to the people I love, or sell them...... either way I will never have made enough quilts or bought enough fabric!