Quilting makes me calm, except when it doesn’t.

 CALM - - for the 2021 Holiday Photography Challenge (See sidebar for full list.).

 

Hobbies are soothing. At least, they are supposed to be.

 Generally, I love creating quilts. I tend to keep them simple, sticking to basic patterns and using lots of squares, rectangles, triangles, and strips. I assemble my quilts by stitching them up on my sewing machine, rather than by hand. And I frequently yarn-tie them, rather than quilting through the many layers.

 This Christmas season, I decided to whittle down my holiday fabric remnant collection by putting together a fun and festive quilt. I enjoyed creating the many squares and strips, using my rotary cutter and cutting board. I took my time sorting and setting out the color and design patterns before sewing the whole cover arrangement.

 

What fun!

 Then it was time to create the “quilt sandwich” and top-stitch through the layers (for loft and durability).

 

That’s where fun became not-so-much.

 I pinned the quilt (poking straight pins through all layers) edge and corner and at every intersection of every fabric piece. 

Then I wrestled it through my traditional sewing machine for hours and hours. These stretched into days and weeks, as my patience frayed more than an unfinished hemline.

 As my smartphone piped cheery holiday music into my basement workshop, I piped up at my sewing machine with less-than cheery vernacular.

 At last, I came to the end of the last top-stitched line of quilting. I tried to stitch-in-the-ditch, but occasionally missed the mark a bit, wrangling the bulky project.

 

The next (and final) step is to wash and dry the completed quilt.

 This will puff it up (making it fluffy and concealing where my top-stitching might not be exactly straight), while also removing multiple bloodstains on the back side, where my pin-pricked fingers soiled the fabric.

 I’m just grateful that I finished – and that I didn’t opt to make this one a full bed-sized quilt! And I’m thankful that I have a pair of compression gloves to relieve my sore hands and wrists.

 After the dryer cycle completes, I’m likely to be calm again, curling up with a cozy Christmas quilt and a good novel. 

And maybe I'll nod off with visions of long-armed sewing machines, rather than sugarplums. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

 

Image/s: Personal photo/s. All rights reserved.

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