My Love of Books and Quilts

Besides my family, friends, and my Heavenly Father and Savior, who or what do I love? While pondering this question it suddenly hit me. What two things do I do almost every day of my life for pleasure and satisfaction? I read a good book and I work on a quilt. Those two things are essential to my life and I truly love them.

The love of books came to me as a gift from my father. He was always reading at least one book and frequently had two or three going at the same time. The desk in his den had piles of them just waiting for their turn. And my mom too always had a book she was reading. So I grew up in a household where it was just expected that I and my siblings would follow in our parents footsteps and be big readers. I cannot imagine a day without time for reading, and luckily both of my husbands are and were avid readers. Now what about this obsession with making quilts. How did that come about? Neither my mother or my two grandmothers were quilters, and I actually never knew anyone personally who was, but for some reason I had always loved quilts, especially hand-made ones. But it wasn't until I was in my late thirties that I suddenly decided I needed to take a quilt making class, so I got the best teacher I could find.

She was expensive but the class was worth every penny. It was six weeks long and covered a lot of territory. Our excellent instructor, who had a mountain of prize winning quilts, started us on our quilt making experience by having us make a doll size quilt where we learned all the essentials: fabric selection, how to choose a pattern, cutting the pieces, sewing things together and most importantly of all: putting the backing, the batting, and the quilt top together. Then came the challenging part for most new quilters: learning how to actually hand quilt the three layers together.

But I loved it....all of it and could hardly wait to make an actual people sized quilt. That love is as strong today as it was fifty-plus years ago when I took that life-changing class. Sadly, hand quilting a quilt is now a dying art and machines have mainly taken over that job. Due to my failing eyesight and in the interest of time, I have resorted to machine quilting parts of some of my quilts and have even gotten comfortable with doing everything on the machine if I need a small quilt in a hurry. The most satisfying part is I get to create something I love that is both an artistic endeavor and also something that can be used to keep people warm.

I've lost track of how many I've made over the years, but if you open a linen closet in my house you will not find sheets or towels. It will be loaded with quilts, all of them loved. My husband John and I always have one over us when we watch T.V. at night, and he enjoys going through the closets and finding just the right quilt for that evening. And, he rarely complains about the thread pieces that get on all our clothes from whatever quilt is now under construction.

Quilts and books: I love you both.