In the first year of my marriage, my mother-in-law introduced me to the world of quilting. She had joined the bandwagon of quilters in the '70's and was eager to share her craft with me. (If any new mother-in-law out there wants to establish a lifelong friendship with her daughter-in-law, teach her to quilt.) I decided to use a Bear Paw pattern for my first quilt. I chose a blue solid and a blue and white tiny floral print for my two fabric selections, and in my mind, it was going to be the most beautiful quilt in the world. Carefully, I traced each triangle with a template and cut it out with scissors (no rotary cutters in those days). Then, because we were such purists, I stitched each piece together by hand. In order to be a genuine quilt, we felt it had to be entirely hand-stitched from the piecing to the quilting.
Today, my mother-in-law and I still enjoy getting together to work on quilt projects. We save our handwork, such as binding or hand-applique, for these times. There will always be a special appreciation in our hearts for handwork, but as far as piecing and quilting are concerned, we now state emphatically, "If the pioneer women had owned sewing machines, they would have used them!" That goes for longarm quilting machines, too! We certainly accomplish a lot more with this new philosophy.
By the way, I'm sad to say I never finished that blue and white Bear Paw quilt. I guess I got overwhelmed by the enormity of the project and all the hand-sewing. Come to think of it, I believe I'll take one of the completed blocks out of the hope chest and frame it. It will be a sentimental reminder of "how I got to where I am today," don't you think?
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