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In today’s mail I received a packet from the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center containing a pile of postcards advertising the Quilts=Art=Quilts show.  I am thrilled that my quilt is one of the five included in the card.  I’m also very honored that my quilt won the award for machine workmanship.  The award makes me chuckle a bit and hammer home the years flying by.

When I learned to quilt, I hand pieced and hand quilted everything — even a log cabin wallhanging.  It took some time to start using a treadle machine.  In those days I drew the sewing lines the same way that I did for hand piecing.  While I eventually started adding the 1/4″ seam allowance, I quickly adapted to paper piecing because I never was good at sewing a straight line.  Although I used a computer to help me design quilts from the early 1990s on, I continued hand quilting until about 2001.

Back then I used a number 12 needle, threading it with ease, and often working into the wee hours of the night without any eye strain.  The hand quilting I did on my piece called Awakenings (which is my gallery) is the best I achieved, and I doubt I have the hand dexterity to achieve those teeny stitches again.   Eventually in 2001 I finally ventured into using a machine for quilting a large wallhanging, Going in Circles.  While I struggled with it, I was honored that the quilt won some awards, although my critiques said my machine quilting needed improvement.  It took several more quilts and plenty of small journals to finally get comfortable with the machine.

Today threading a number 12 needle take several stabs with the thread.  At first I was sure my needles were defective because I couldn’t see the hole.  It was my husband who thought I might need to get my eyes examine.  Funny, I never ever considered it.   I now wear reading glasses.  And, I now love machine work.  My machine has a bright light attached to it, I have reading glasses on while sewing, and I take breaks to give my eyes a rest.  While it’s always been far more important to me to have work recognized for its visual appeal, winning the award for  machine workmanship  is a first for me.  And it’s certainly been a long time in the making.

For more information on the Quilts=Art=Quilts show, visit their website here. On the site is also a PDF with images of the entire show.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 11:40 pm and is filed under Exhibitions & Quilt Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.