The Times They Are A'Changing

I have been a quilter since about 1991. Well, let's say I have been quilting since then. I didn't consider myself a quilter until about 1994 when I had gotten more into it and had tried more sewing and quilting. This has been an interesting journey my friends.

I have made probably almost 200 quilts during that time. I did not document all of them, but enough to get a rough count. When I first started quilting I learned by reading books about it. I finally took a class on how to quilt properly in about 1995. Machine quilting wasn't even on my radar at that point.

I bought myself a subscription to Quilters Newsletter, which I kept for 10 years. I finally saw that they were changing in a way that I was not, so I stopped. I have not missed it, as I have grown and changed as a quilter myself.

During much of this time I hand quilted. In my hand quilting hey day, I even built a hand quilting frame from a kit I bought through Quilters Newsletter. I did quilt several large quilts on it during that time. Then came the computer age of quilting for me.

I discovered blogs. I discovered on line fabric shopping. I fell in love with quilting all over again, and started this blog in 2011. I did a few on line quilt alongs. When my job changed in 2010 I suddenly had more time to quilt and I threw myself into it with happy abandon. I became very prolific and really learned how to machine quilt on a domestic machine. I bought a Bernina Quilters Edition.

I found endless inspiration on line. I found Flickr and had my own on line bee for 3 years. Now, things for me are changing again. I am getting ready to retire and am moving and down-sizing. I am culling and sorting. I will never stop quilting, but I am getting rid of stuff I no longer use.  This is the strange thing to me, even with all the good stuff I have, no one wants most of it.

I had a yard sale and sold very little. So, I donated almost 100 books to the thrift store for them to sell. It is local and benefits our schools. I guess, like me, most quilters find what they need on line now and don't need to encumber themselves with lots of books. I only kept about 2 dozen of my newest ones.

No one wanted all my back issues of Quilters Newsletter either, so I sadly threw them in the recycling bin. And the quilting frame sits here in pieces with the directions and small pieces in a zip bag, hoping and waiting for someone to take it and use it. I almost had a taker, but she didn't have enough space for it.

So my craft has changed so much that the old tools are no longer wanted or needed I guess. That makes me a little sad. But change is necessary for growth. So I will donate the quilting fame too. Maybe someone will buy it or maybe not. I will never know. Back to packing and culling. I will talk to you soon.