Goal: Learn to Quilt

Growing up in Central Pennsylvania, I had long admired quilts that were made by local residents, especially by Amish women. When I retired, I wanted to learn how to do that; and had set learning that skill as one of my retirement goals.

Bear in mind that I have no inherent craft ability. I took several classes and my attempts were absolutely awful. Embarrassing, even.

But then I enrolled in a class offered by a local quilt shop, with a teacher named Jeannette. She took us all the way back to the very basics, and with some practice, I finally succeeded in creating a decent quilt. See above! Yes, I am very proud of this accomplishment, as well as the cute little pillow I created also.

The class originally used a pattern with half-square triangles, which at the time I was not able to master. But I did learn enough to adapt the pattern to one that I could do, and ended up creating my own design. The individual squares were sewn using a machine, but the quilting and border were completed by hand. It was time consuming, but very rewarding. And I was now retired, so I had plenty of time.

Since completing my first quilt, I have finished a second and am in the middle of the third. I have made four quilted table runners, one quilted wall hanging, and one quilted banner. I have also now mastered half-square triangles, and feel confident creating my own designs.

One of the rooms in our house is set aside for me and my projects. There are two tables, bins for organizing material, and my husband very nicely set up peg board organizers on a wall to hold all my supplies. Not only does this help keep everything in order, I can leave projects in process without having to put them up each day. Sometimes, you just want to close the door and leave things where they are so you can pick them up again later. And when you return, you can pick up immediately where you left off. Such a luxury to be able to do that!