Quilting weather

As I sit at my computer, this is the view out the window, with the temperature at a balmy 13 degrees Fahrenheit, after a bone chilling low of -16 earlier this week.   If you are looking at similar weather, you might be wondering ‘What do beekeepers do in the winter (other than worry about their bees)?’  This beekeeper does some quilting.  

Quilting had a little history for me, because Marilee, a good friend of my mother’s, was an avid quilter and thanks to her, we had many quilts in our house over the years, from happy, fun quilts for my kids, to the extraordinarily beautiful quilt (shown above) that has hung on my wall for more than 10 years.  Although I started sewing in elementary school, which is now more than 50 years in the past, I never thought I would be a quilter.  I sewed clothes for myself up through high school but didn’t do much sewing after I started college. Never-the-less, my sewing machine and a couple of boxes of fabric moved with me as I moved around first for school and then work. When I retired, I didn’t have a strong urge to start sewing again. In fact, before we moved to the farm I donated those boxes of fabrics to the local thrift store, deciding NOT to move them yet again.  When I arrived at the farm I did the same with the box of fabrics my mother had tucked away in the attic. 

My mom, wondering what I had in mind to keep busy in my retirement, asked me if I thought I might take up quilting.   I said no.  In fact, my answer probably was a more definitive “Not a chance!”   What I thought I would do instead was learn cabinet making.  My dad had a nice collection of tools in the new barn/workshop that stayed behind when my parents made their move to the condo, and I expanded that a bit.  Using those, after a basic woodworking class, I am able to hold my own with simple wood projects, including building some bee hives, remodeling the inside of the chicken coop, building a lean-to for the goats and gates for animal yards, etc.  Unfortunately, real cabinet making requires equipment I don’t have, and more importantly, lots of know-how that I have yet to find the perfect place to acquire. 

So, no cabinet making for me, at least not yet.  But one day, looking for material to make a tablecloth for my market table, and regretting having given away all the fabric that had been with me (or my mother) for so many years, I wandered into a local fabric store.  As it turns out I ended up in Ann Arbor Sewing Center, a quilting store with the most incredible array of fabrics.  They had a host of bee themed fabric perfect for my market table, plus so much more!  I wanted much more than I could justify buying.  Then I saw that they offered a “Make your first quilt” class.  Aha! A reason to buy more fabric. I signed up for the class.

Maybe you could call the first quilt ‘starting down the slippery slope’ because now quilting is one of my regular wintertime activities.  I am nowhere near as good at it or as productive as many of the quilters I have met since, but quilting definitely provides a creative outlet during beekeeping down time, with the added bonus that I didn’t need to buy too much new equipment.   I do all my piecing on the old Kenmore sewing machine I have had since I was in high school.   And since quilting is a relatively new hobby for me, there is still much for me to learn, which helps me with my goal of lifelong learning, and hopefully is helping to keep my brain agile for as long as possible.  I attend a monthly quilt club where I continue to learn about quilting and I try to use each new technique I learn in club to make something, even if it is something small.

This winter I am upping my quilting “game” by learning to use a very fancy set-up called a long arm machine and frame for stitching together the quilt top, back and batting.  It is an expensive machine that I have neither the money nor the desire nor the space to own.  However, one has recently become available to me at an amazing place called Maker Works in Ann Arbor.  When I heard about it, I couldn’t resist jumping in and learning to use it.  What I do with it is called free motion quilting, where I come up with a general idea of how I want to stitch the quilt and then ‘free motion’ steer the machine around on the quilt trying to turn that idea into reality.  You might be surprised just how hard it is to do that! I know I was!!!! But I don’t give up easily. I started small, first on scrap fabric, and then on projects that had not required extensive prep work and could be donated when done.  I am now slowly working my way up to using it on quilt projects that have more time invested and more emotional value to me.  The whole process still feels intimidating but bit by bit I am getting more comfortable. 

Maker Works also has every woodworking tool you could ever imagine and offers instruction on how to use them.  So, someday, maybe I will learn how to do some cabinet making there as well!  They also have laser engravers and cutters, 3-D printers, tee shirt printers, metal working tools, sewing machines, an embroidery machine and so much more. It is such a great concept: community resources of shared tools and workspace.  It would be wonderful if every community had a Maker Works or its equivalent, offering access to teaching and tools. How great to allow people to explore their creative sides, and learn new skills in shared spaces, without having to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars to own all the tools.  At a time when too many seem to be saying ‘What’s ours is ours’ and even ‘What’s yours is ours’, it is refreshing to find a community resource upholding the model of “What’s ours is yours.”   I hope you too are lucky enough to find resources and a creative outlet to keep your brain stimulated and your hands busy, while producing something you are proud of in the process!