Be Kind...There is more than one way to quilt a quilt!

Welcome to the first official Bobbins End Blog post, and thank you for joining the Maple Leaf Quilting Company community!

If you are a first time visitor to our website, Facebook or Blog we are so happy you stopped by to visit.

When I was mindlessly scrolling through social media a couple of weeks ago I came upon this photo about addition. It spoke to me in so many ways and can be used as a lesson over and over in life, it particularly spoke to me on this evening because just previous to this there were other posts from different quilting sites around North America with unkind comments about computerized longarm quilting…. since I run a computerized longarm quilting machine the comments were a little heavy on my heart!

THERE IS A TIME AND PLACE FOR ALL TYPES OF QUILTING!

Not every quilt requires 60 hours of customized quilting, nor is every quilt suited for an edge to edge design; or months of hand quilting.

I am sure back when Mr. Singer was selling his first sewing machines and someone ran their quilt under it, there was talk around the local quilting bee about the machine quilted quilt and if that was an appropriate way to quilt it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zqmPPEQvaM

From listening to the attached video link from Mr. Gammill (Longarm Pioneer!) you will see that not everyone was on board with the machine quilting from the beginning, just as not everyone was on board with computerized quilting from the beginning, but there is a time and place for everything.

We all produce quilt tops at record speed now a days, and these wondrous longarm machines will help us complete quilts. So, if you quilt by hand, domestic machine or by MasterCard online… once your quilt top is quilted….it is a QUILT!!!

A quilt made with your time, back aching work and probably lots of ‘unsewing’.

This brings me to a story from my own quilting journey back in 1997. When I first moved to Northern British Columbia and decided it was finally time to learn how to quilt! I had been sewing for over 10 years learning from my mom at the dining room table, 4-H and of course the beloved Home Economics class at my Nova Scotia High School.

I signed up for the class with great excitement and even convinced a co-worker to join me. The class was once a week for 6 weeks and at the end we would have a sampler quilt.

The class started off well, I completed my blocks and then the class would move on to the next block. We learned the basics of rotary cutting and not to backstitch like I always did for garment sewing… then came week 4!!! 

It was a simple star block, but I struggled with it every evening after work repeatedly trying again and again. I ‘unsewed’ (AKA rippin’ seams) over and over again trying to get the points to match, finally I was happy with it and took it to class.

The first thing that the instructor did was tell me my points didn't match very well and she ripped my seams out to have me do it over!!!

I wanted to cry right there!  I was very happy with my block.

If I had completed my quilt with the error in the points, it would still be a quilt when it was done!

Needless to say, that sampler quilt has never been finished!

I did not try quilting again for many years and my unfinished sampler quilt still sits folded up in a plastic grocery bag waiting for attention. It has been that way for 19 years, and has been through 10 moves, 6 houses and several apartments from one end of the country and back again!

My unfinished sampler provides me with a reminder that we all started somewhere. I have completed many more quilts since then and I must say my points have come a long way since 1997.

If someone has made their first quilt top please, compliment them not critique them, it is a huge deal to put in all that work and have your efforts pay off.

If they go one step further and get that quilt top quilted… a GREAT BIG high five… another quilt quilted is another hug from one person to the next… no matter if you hand quilt or quilt by MasterCard!

May your bobbin stay full and your 1/4 inch be true!!!!!

Happy Quilting,

Tracy