IT'S ALL IN PERSPECTIVE

Quilts by Phyllis at Quilter's Pantry

As in life, quilting is taken all in perspective. We learn early on that there are no 'Quilt Police'. Then we learn all the rules. Then we realize that  the rules are just guidelines and we are free to do our own thing and in our own way. Then we realize that some of the 'rules' make sense and make a quilter's life easier. 

We learn to laugh at our mistakes and the hours we have spent with our seam rippers vs our sewing machines. We learn that with time and patience we can learn and grow in our quilting abilities. What we looked at once and said, 'No way!" we now look at and say. "Look what I made!"  

And then there are the quilts we make and set out there to be judged. Three of those pictured above have been up for judging. One has taken 3rd place by the judges and  2nd by the People's Choice. Both in 2012.  This year at the last minute I entered the latest wall hanging I had made. (It was not made with being judged in mind.). It didn't win anything this year. (I never thought it would.) What I found amusing was the scores and remarks the quilt got from the judges, and realized that one person's attempt to make a statement is another person's idea of "it should have been done differently". 
The quilt entered this year was my "Tree Lined Pathways". The original design that I made changes to was done by Tony Jacobson and called, "Pathways".  He will be happy to know that his design received an: "Interesting Design" comment. 

I made the quilt my own also in how I longarmed it. I purposely put a bit of a wavy line to the stitches in the white area to mimic the wavy lines in the brown fabric. This brought: "More consistent amount of quilting would help reduce waves."   My thought? "YES! I got the wave effect I wanted!" lol 

It's all in perspective. It's in how we each see our own quilts, it's in how other quilters see our work, it's in how non-quilters see our work and it's in how the judges see our work.  Each one will see it differently.  And each one will take a different feeling from a quilt.  We all know that fabric talks to us. A quilt top will talk to us as well as the person doing the longarm work or hand stitching. And a finished quilt will talk to many people.  

Let your quilts reach out and say a lot to those whose life it touches. Create quilts from your heart. Challenge yourself  not only in what you learn new this year, but in what you hear your quilts say to you and to others.

With that I will call it a night. I have a customer's quilt to bind and believe me when it arrived it spoke loud and clear telling me what it wanted quilted on it! 

Until next time - keep those needles stitching.....

Phyllis