Doodle Time

The other day, my husband and I were finally unpacking some boxes in our basement that had been sitting around since we moved into our new house a year and a half ago.

Low and behold, I came across an old graph paper spiral book with Winnie the Pooh. Can you guess what treasure I found inside? Being a quilter, I'm sure you don't even have to try hard!

What I found reminded me of when I first laid eyes on quilting, or at least, the first time I remember. I'm not sure how old I was, but it was somewhere around my tween years. I was waiting around at the arena and saw a woman, wearing a jacket that SHE had made! (Of course I didn't find that out by eavesdropping!) It was all small squares sewn together, and brown, not a color that I was fond of. However, it had all of these little squares, and there were all different patterns that played together as though they were a ton of little facets reflecting sunlight... it wasn't shiny at all... it was absolutely breathtaking!

Unfortunately, I didn't have anyone close to me to really teach me to sew. So my love of symmetry and patterns didn't get to play with beautiful fabrics. Besides, this was before the age on Internet shopping. If you are from a small town like me, with one small hobby shop, you will know my despair. I don't even recall seeing fabric there, just a lot of wool, and I didn't have money yet except for my measly allowance. From then on, every time I would see anything that looked like a quilt, I was taken by it, but never did anything about it. I didn't know there was anything I could do. Sure, I found some fabric somewhere (I don't know where, maybe it was at that hobby shop) and made little heart shaped cushions with boys names embroidered on them... all by hand (oh the silliness!)... but quilting was beyond me.

So for years, I doodled, and doodled... I am still a doodler. It's unfortunate that I threw out so many drawings, but this book managed to escape. There are 48 pages of doodles in that book. From glancing at them, you will understand that I was destined to become a quilter. It's only unfortunate that it didn't happen until I reached my 30's. All that wasted time!

 

Those doodles I'll share with you on a regular basis, but not all of them since I want to keep a few of the cool ones in my pocket as they may make great patterns someday if I ever decide to venture that way.

I will give them their own page (eventually), so feel free to print them and color them anytime you need your own doodle-time.

So now it's your turn... how did you discover quilting?