Category Archives: Quilt Gifts

Quilt Therapy?

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

I reserved this domain name a number of years ago – when fabric was about $6/yd.  For those of you who have been quilting and buying quality quilt fabric, you’ll realize this has been my domain name for quite a while.  In that time, I’ve had non-quilters ask me what Quilt Therapy really was…while seasoned quilters smirk and enjoy their own forms of Quilt Therapy.

And back in those earlier days of my quilting, it was said that Quilt Therapy was less expensive than true therapy.  Right now, with the cost of fabrics, quilting, shipping – I would definitely have to say that if you are a proficient quilter, it is NOT cheaper – though, for me, it is way more satisfying!

Let’s see if I can throw out my own definition of Quilt Therapy for you.

A lovely little baby girl was born to a great set of parents, the baby’s mother I personally knew since my youngest daughter was less than one.  This little baby’s mother was my mother’s helper when I had very young children…and as she grew up and got more responsible, she was our go-to babysitter for our kids.  She took the kids to her house in the summer because I worked from home and needed some quiet time to get my work done.  She and her parents took our kids when my husband had to have an emergency appendectomy…and they took our kids in when a precious life ended far too soon and we had to fly from Utah to Texas to attend her services.  If we were going somewhere and needed an extra set of hands (like to the public swimming pool), she went with us.  She was and still is an awesome person – and we could not have been more pleased when she finally had a baby of her own.  She spent a few years of her marriage with just her husband, because her mom told me that her babysitting my four kids was the best birth control there ever was!  I think they’d been married for about five (or more) years before they had this precious new life in their hearts and in their home.

This new baby calls to me and I begin MY Quilt Therapy.  It can be a long and winding road, especially if I have to rip out a seam or two (or six), but the Quilt Therapy gives me such a blast of fresh quilted air that I enjoy every single process of making a quilt.

I am not as expedient nor able to quilt quite as much as I used to – with this multiple sclerosis, I can usually get in 15 – 30 minutes, on my feet (choosing or buying fabric, cutting, ironing, etc.) most days before my body parts start screaming for relief.  So now, when I make a quilt, I spend however many hours or days it takes to cut out the quilt pieces.  Then I rest.  Another few days and I will press all of the cut out pieces.  Then I rest.  Sitting down to piece a quilt top is pretty simple, and even more simple when it’s a baby quilt because it’s smaller than larger bed quilts.  But, there is ironing involved in that piecing process and once again, I do my piecing in daily/weekly increments so as not to be in too much pain.

So, now I have the quilt top done…however my Quilt Therapy isn’t finished yet!

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This is a photograph of the completed baby quilt top.

Once the top is done, I have to decide if I can quilt it on my domestic machine or if I want a professional quilter to use her long-arm and quilt it for me.  In this case, I decided to go with a pro (Kathryn Rister) – mostly because a baby quilt is usually used a lot and washed a lot and it needs to stand up to the test of time.

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This is a close-up of part of the quilt top quilted.

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Although it’s not easy to see, this is the professionally quilted quilt top.

Next in the Quilt Therapy process is the binding.  Then the label on the back…and sending the completed quilt to the little baby it was intended for.  Not yet!  I’m not quite done with my Quilt Therapy for this quilt.

THIS is the closure I get when I enjoy my Quilt Therapy:

SkyeCashlynQuilt-450

A T-Shirt Quilt in the Making for a Spencer

Quilt Therapy Posted on by

I was hired by a lawyer to be his legal assistant/secretary/gopher in 1993, before my husband and I had children.  The gal who called me about the attorney’s selection of me had the last name that was my maiden name, Spencer.

On my first week of work in what was literally a broom closet converted into an office that we shared, I just *had* to ask her about her last name.  Once I found out that it was her married name, then we talked about her husband’s family.  And this information gave me goosebumps!  Her husband’s parent’s names were the EXACT first and last names of the oldest uncle and his wife on my paternal side of the family.  NO WAY!  I knew that my aunt and uncle had already passed away, so I knew it wasn’t my immediate kin.  But, then I was shocked to find out that her husband’s name was also one of my first cousin’s names.  (queue the Twilight Zone music).  We were both thunder-struck.  Though, her now ex-husband was probably kin to us somewhere down the proverbial genealogical tree – it was fun to share Spencer stories.

Then, she got pregnant and she and her husband moved to the north of Austin and she went on about her business of being a working woman, wife and expectant mother many miles away from our broom closet.  I attended a baby shower for her, just before her daughter was born in December 1994.  Unbeknownst to me, when I went to her baby shower, I was pregnant, also, and had no idea!  I had been told I had a tipped girl-part and could probably not ever get pregnant – boy did the ‘practicing’ physicians get THAT one wrong!  About a month or so before my due date, she and her baby girl came to my wedding shower.  It seemed we found ourselves together, even when we were miles and miles apart.

And our daughters just graduated from high school in May.  Our parallel journeys will continue as I believe her son is in the same grade as our second daughter, in different schools miles apart, of course.

(Another aside, without even knowing it, we both have yellow labs, too!)

Because I try to gift close family and friends with quilts when they are babies, graduates (high school or college) or weddings – I reached out to this gal and asked her if I could make her daughter a quilt for a graduation gift.  She readily accepted my offer and told me her daughter wanted a t-shirt quilt.  I was a bit leery, given that the first one I had made was not of the quality that I desired, I was willing to try again.  I did a day’s worth of research because the first one I made had stabilizer that was way too stiff for my preference.  I found a much more pliable stabilizer and had her purchase all of the necessary fabric, stabilizer and to send me the t-shirts she wanted to use in the quilt.

Yesterday, I went home from my office much earlier than usual because I just didn’t have the gumption to waste time work on the computer.  I read a couple more tutorials (because my memory is not to be trusted anymore) online about making a t-shirt quilt and then got busy cutting up the t-shirts they wanted me to use.  Once I had everything cut out, my youngest daughter helped me lay all of the shirts on our bed and I took a picture of them and sent it to my friend – just to make sure I got all of the shirts (front or back) that they had asked me to use.

While waiting for their confirmation, I began pressing the stabilizer to the t-shirt blocks and was VERY happy to note that the stabilizer was, in fact, *much* better than the previous one I’d used.  I got down to the end of the stabilizer she had purchased and still had three shirts left to press.  DRATS.  She is purchasing more and sending it to me and then I can square up the blocks and begin putting the quilt together!

I’m excited about this quilt – both from a quilter’s standpoint as well as it being gifted to a young lady I made a baby quilt for 18+ years ago.  The only problem?  The college she is going to is that one in Texas whose colors are maroon and white….and that is what the quilt fabric has all over it.  🙂