Have you ever noticed how quilting stetches across generations?  I learned
to do serious quilting from a group of 80 year old ladies at a methodist
church group a decade or so ago -- they quilted to have some social time and 
to
raise money for the church.  (They did GOOD quilting, too).  I was in my
late 20s at the time and never felt out of place, etc.   
 
Now I'm quilting a lot again and my 3 girls that I still have at home get
more interested each day.  I guess they have to out of self-defense since I
quilt and then we go to "Aunt Patti's" and she quilts too.  I have been
putting together an album quilt that I started when I changed jobs last year. 
 I
wanted something to help me remember all the good people I worked with so I
did signature album blocks and took them in with fabric pens the last week I
was at the company and had all my co-workers sign a block.  I put the quilt
away in the rush of getting use to a new job and just recently got it back
out to finish -- I needed more blocks to make it large enough for the bed I
am going to put it on so I made up more of the units for the blocks and
started putting them together.  Now, the sewing part goes pretty fast - I 
piece
on the machine.  But  the deicision process of which colors to use together
to maintain a scrappy look but also not have it clash takes me a while.  My 8
year old daughter, Elizabeth, kept wanting to help.  So finally, I showed
her how the different units fit together for the block and let her lay out 
he
blocks for me -- I just sew them up.  She really got into it.  In fact, she
was having so much fun doing this that the 4 year old, Meg, (not to be
outdone, you know) had to "make a block" too.  So, now I have both my 
oungest
ones laying out blocks -- faster than I can sew them together.  They are very
meticulous -- and they have very definitive likes and dislikes.  They also
have a great eye for color -- much better than mine, I'm afraid.  So, here we
sit -- the 3 of us working on this quilt top when the 17 year old comes up,
watches for a while, and wants to do it too.  So she laid out some blocks. 
Looking over the heads bowed in concentration as they put together their
blocks -- from the 4 year old's curley head to my 17 year old -- I was amazed
at how much all of us were enjoying this -- no generation gap; no sibling
rivalry, just quilting.   
 
Well, now my 17 year old, Emilie, has decided that she is going to do a
quilt for her boyfriend.  She decided on a log cabin quilt.  She went thru my
fabric stash -- she has good taste -- took some of my best pieces.  She has a
huge pile of fabric -- 17 different fabrics for this quilt.  She pieced 3
blocks yesterday; they are not very consistent in size (from 9 to 10 inches)
but she hasn't been sewing long and we can square them up.  The blocks though
are gorgeous.  She has it figured out how many she needs, etc.  It should be
a beautiful quilt.  Now if I could just get my sewing machine back so I can
quilt!!!! 
 
Suzanne 
 
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