Beth Ferrier’s Blog

Have I mentioned recently how much I love quilts? They make me happy. Every step in the process, they give me joy.

Quilts make me happy when they are just a pile of fabric, waiting to be born.

They make me happy when they are a stack of blocks, waiting to be joined.

Lots and lots of applique, edges to be turned, flowers to stitch together, vines to grow, oh, how that makes me happy too.

Okay, so basting doesn’t make me happy, except when it’s done, and then I love it.

Quilting, stitch by stitch, feels as creative to me as developing the original design. Choosing the quilting patterns and seeing how they play out is exciting to me.

Washing the quilt, hanging  it out on the line to dry, knowing that it will have that smell that only comes when dried in the sunshine, that makes me happy too. If I ever win a million jillion dollars I will have people who make sure I have a quilt and crisp sheets, fresh from the clothesline, on my bed every night.

This quilt has been on my bed for several years. I made it from my collection of fabrics from the Smithsonian, some of the very first reproduction fabrics to be made available to quilters. It makes me happy to remember collecting the fabrics (mostly fat quarters, of course), how I thought they were too precious to cut and how glad I am that I finally did.