The Tell-Tale Quilts

Twenty-something years ago I started quilting, quilting, and quilting some more.  I purchased hundreds of yards, fat-quarters, and little snippets of fabric.  My closets were stuffed full of plastic tubs holding all shapes, sizes and colors of quilts in various stages of completeness.  I saved each scrap of fabric 2 inches or bigger and carefully sorted them into ziplock bags by colors and shades.  Ohhhhh, how anal-retentive does that sound?

The quilting projects soon got out of hand -- 20 to 30 unfinished quilts lurking quietly in the closet.  That's absurd!  In order to relieve some of the pressure, I moved them to the garage.  Then I moved them to the empty back bedroom.  But. . . I could still hear them calling me.  They seemed as demented and crazed as Poe's Tell-Tale Heart!  Ka . . . . thump,  . ..  thump . . . thump.  Although the bolts of fabric had been dissected, chiseled, pieced and re-sewn, I could still hear them.  Do you get the visual of the quilt skeletons lurking inside those plastic tubs?

What's a newbie decluttering, minimalizing, organized woman to do?  I am tackling those quilts one at a time.  After a strenuous, tedious 12 hours of sewing, I kicked three of those bad-boys to the curb today.  They are boxed up to be delivered to the quilt shop where they will be professional machine quilted.  I have decided to lower the bar on my expectations just a little and allow myself to become a piecer.  Thus turning over the actual quilting to a professional.  That's the only way I will get these bloody quilts out of the back bedroom.

As I sat at the sewing machine in back-aching, shoulder-aching, neck-aching agony, I kept asking myself, "If you were to die tomorrow, would you be satisfied that you spent the last day on this Earth sewing?"  My answer, "ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY NOT!"  I would want to be out in the fresh air, playing with my dogs, hiking, smelling the dirt and wallowing in sunshine.

Although, I really want to release this hobby from my life and move on to other things, the controlling, anal-retentive person inside of me won't quit until they are all finished.  Stay tuned . . . I have a quilt show planned for November 19th.

For the Love of Chickens!

Fractured Crystal