Sewing Machine Bliss

Back story: My mom was an amazing quilter. I say was because almost 6 years ago now, she passed away from a year long battle with leukemia. My mom was a quiet person, liked to be by herself and do her own thing. If you didn't know her, you'd think with her spunky attitude that quilting would be the farthest thing from one of her hobbies. But since highschool she started dinking around quilting and soon excelled at it. She started small, did some other crafts like cross stitch and making gifts for our teachers over the years, but in the later years she focused on quilting and trying different and creative things with new techniques and fabrics. She made probably hundreds of quilts, most of which she gave to others as gifts. She even started the tradition of giving all my cousins a baby quilt and when they turned 13 they would get another one all their own. We still have a lot of quilts to continue that tradition there are still 4 girls left to get one. What a treasure for them! We also received our fair share of bed quilts, lap quilts, quillows (a quilt that turned into a pillow), wallhangings and now dozens of unfinished, almost done or just started, quilts to complete.

I can't say I'll ever have all those quilts completed. Part of it is time and money, maybe the other part is keeping the memory of that was moms and she left it the way she wanted it. Maybe not quite thought through yet on what she wanted to do or she was waiting for a new line of fabric to come out to complete the thought. Not sure.

My mom had in recent years purchased a beautiful digital sewing machine, so her first expensive maching sat idle in the closet for years. The digital machine went to her good friend who is still putting it to great use! The old machine I wanted to resurrect and thought it might not as the pedals went missing. But weeks later, my dad found them! Mom's friend, Mary, checked out the machine and said it works great just needs a cleaning. So dad brought it up this weekend!

I am not a quilter by any stretch of the imagination. I wish I spent more time learning from her. But since joining Etsy and finding so many inspirational sites on easy projects, I wanted to get that machine going! I found Amy Butler and her fabrics and designs about a year ago when I was looking for a diaper bag pattern. I have since checked out her books and the design of her fabrics, bags, paper and all of other simple crafts are so beautiful to look at! It reminds of me going to antique shops and seeing old quilts stacked up thinking of who cuddled up in those or who did they comfort?

From there, my inspiration comes from my daughter, who is 8 months and cute as a button. I'd love to make her sundresses and a blankie. I also purchased a handbage off of Etsy that is beautiful and wondered if I could do something like that? Here is a site on Etsy to buy Amy's fabric or a host of other beautiful patterns: fabricsupplies.etsy.com

So with all that said, I may never make beautiful queen sized quilts and spend hours cutting up small squares of fabric ready for assembly, but I could create memories for my kids as I've recalled my own memories with my mom. All because of a sewing machine.