A while back, I wrote Why I Quilt. Well, this is why I machine quilt...
I first learned to quilt or piece at the Mormon Handicraft Store in Salt Lake City, Utah. (a wonderful shop to go visit, if you're ever in Salt Lake City!) In 1983, after my husband and I were married I took a job in downtown Salt Lake, not far from the original location of the Mormon Handicraft Store. We only had one car and so I would have to wait for husband to get off work or out of school to come pick me up. Some days I would wait a couple of hours. To kill some time one day, I decided to check out that shop.
Inside I saw wonderful quilts and beautiful fabrics. I was in awe! I noticed they offered some classes, and they fit into my schedule, so I signed up. I had to learn how to quilt! So during those hours I would wait for my husband after work, I took quilting classes.
There I learned to quilt like the pioneers did. Everything by hand, marking and cutting, meticulously piecing and sewing...all like the pioneers did. I loved it. I was hooked.
We moved back to California after a few years and I signed up for some more quilting classes here. In these classes, the ladies were using rotary cutters, sewing machines, and even doing the quilting by machine! They were so fast. Each week our teacher would give us new assignments and I just couldn't keep up. I was still trying to do it like the pioneers did it. After all, I thought, I took classes from the Mormon Handicraft!
Well one d
ay in my quilting class, the lady sitting across from me could see my frustration. I was so behind! She said this one sentance that changed my life forever! "Vivian, don't you think if the pioneers had Berninas, they would have used them?"
I first learned to quilt or piece at the Mormon Handicraft Store in Salt Lake City, Utah. (a wonderful shop to go visit, if you're ever in Salt Lake City!) In 1983, after my husband and I were married I took a job in downtown Salt Lake, not far from the original location of the Mormon Handicraft Store. We only had one car and so I would have to wait for husband to get off work or out of school to come pick me up. Some days I would wait a couple of hours. To kill some time one day, I decided to check out that shop.
Inside I saw wonderful quilts and beautiful fabrics. I was in awe! I noticed they offered some classes, and they fit into my schedule, so I signed up. I had to learn how to quilt! So during those hours I would wait for my husband after work, I took quilting classes.
There I learned to quilt like the pioneers did. Everything by hand, marking and cutting, meticulously piecing and sewing...all like the pioneers did. I loved it. I was hooked.
We moved back to California after a few years and I signed up for some more quilting classes here. In these classes, the ladies were using rotary cutters, sewing machines, and even doing the quilting by machine! They were so fast. Each week our teacher would give us new assignments and I just couldn't keep up. I was still trying to do it like the pioneers did it. After all, I thought, I took classes from the Mormon Handicraft!
Well one d
ay in my quilting class, the lady sitting across from me could see my frustration. I was so behind! She said this one sentance that changed my life forever! "Vivian, don't you think if the pioneers had Berninas, they would have used them?" You're right! Wow, can you imagine if they had rotary cutters, cutting mats, wonder under, water soluble stabalizer, flat flower head pins!!! Of course they would have used them! (As you can see the man pictured left with a sewing machine...he was hailed as a saint!)
That was many years ago. Now I use all the newest techniques I can learn about...and there's always more! Now I machine piece and machine quilt. I even use a longarm quilting machine. I'm sure the pioneers would have used longarms if they had them too!
(maybe if this family pictured right had a longarm they would be smiling!)
1 comment:
Your pioneer photos are wonderful, are they family? I love the family including the sewing machine in their family portrait. It is strange that as much as my Granny sewed and made quilts on her old treadle machine, no one seems to have taken of photo of her using it. I'd love to have one, but haven't lucked out yet.
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