Quilt in a Day
Or Maybe a Bit Longer...
by Jane Collinge Mack

I had always been what I would call a crafty person. As a young girl, my mother taught me how to sew, but by the time I got to Home Ec., I was completely bored.I grew into adulthood content to be a seamstress until one day one of my daughter’s friends asked me if I could teach her how to knit a scarf for her mother.

Because I didn’t have a clue how to knit, I Googled it and that led me to YouTube.com where I watched an instructional video that demonstrated knitting techniques.I thought, “Wow. This is pretty cool!”It was easy to follow and you could always hit that replay button. Now, I’m an avid knitter and you would think I’d been knitting all my life.

Recently, a friend of mine who knows that I love doing crafts recommended a book called Quilt in a Day. I bought the book, but it sat on my shelf with my series of other craft books. One day my youngest asked me to make her a throw blanket so that she would not have share with her older sisters. So I grabbed the book and started browsing through it.

She chose some scraps of material left over from other sewing projects, and I started cutting and sewing. Surprisingly enough, I was amazed at how large the quilt was becoming with just a few scraps of material. Well, I can’t say the quilt was completed in a day. They lied. Any working mom will not finish this quilt in a day, no matter how accomplished a Quilter she is. But I had a finished project in just less than 30 hours!

Like any new project, once I figured out what was going on and finished it, I realized I did the quilt completely backwards. However, my youngest, was thrilled, just the same. Moments later I was faced with glares of her older sister questioning, “Where’s mine?” So off I was, back to the book to see if I could make the next quilt, this time all in purple. When it was realized that there wasn’t going to be enough purple material, I trekked to the local fabric shop and for only a few dollars more, we got what was needed.

When finished, I posted my pictures on Facebook. A colleague of mine, who also quilts, commented on my pictures and mentioned that she had made a quilt from some of her children’s clothes and now cherishes that quilt. What a great Idea that is.

So, don’t be afraid to explore different aspects of fiber arts.You may just walk away with your own unique piece of art.