Have you ever wanted to learn a new
skill either for fun or for employment purposes? Some skills just take some
simple explanations and practice, where others take weeks, months, or even
years to learn.
Today, I went back to the old memory
bank to see if I could pull up the information on how to quilt. I had worked
briefly on a quilt many, many years ago and did not take the opportunity of
fine tuning any ability. Now, as I was growing up, I had learned how to
embroider and do some hand sewing. When I was fifteen years old, I had the
ability of doing a repair of a seam by hand and could completely hide my
stitches. It almost looked like I had done the repairs on a sewing machine. My
mother could not believe her eyes and was never able to do as well.
I had also learned to embroider and
use an embroidery hoop at an early age. I think that I was about nine or ten at
the time. Both my sister and I had been given samplers for Christmas. Once I
had completed the sampler, I went on to embroidering pillow cases and table
runners. My needle work was not too shabby if I say so myself.
Today, I did not learn a new skill.
Rather, I pulled from my memory and retaught myself about quilting. A group of
us were making quilted potholders as a learning project as one of our group who
was not present wanted to learn how to quilt. Unfortunately, this other person
was not feeling very well today.
Henriette had learned how to quilt
from her grandmother, but she did not realize what we meant by quilting.
Henriette’s mother language is French and she only learned English about ten
years ago. She is still learning the English words for different things. The
other thing about Henriette is that she is a beautiful seamstress. She can do
almost anything when it comes to making something using a sewing machine or
needle and thread. She worked away at her potholder, stopping only to have some
lunch and then final cleanup before going home.
Samantha did very well, too. She
didn’t know how to set up for her potholder and, so, she waited until I did the
step and followed what I had done. She also worked away at hers and I think
that she may have completed two before heading for home. She had to just put
the finishing touches on.
Because we were making potholders,
we did not need a quilting frame. We were able to use embroidery hoops to keep
the 2 layers of material with the quilting bat in between tight so that we
could hand stitch it. Cathy and Donna just wanted to watch and basically
visit. We had a good day, sharing
friendship, knowledge, food, and fun.
As for me, I didn’t even get mine
half done. But, because I figured that we wouldn’t get them completed, I was
already mentally prepared to take any time watching TV to include working on
this simple project. When I started stitching, I couldn’t quite remember what
kind of stitch should be used. After about half a dozen stitches, I realized
what stitch I needed. My work is sloppy to begin with, but as the time passed,
I did get better with it.
Next month, when we get together,
we will still be quilting, but we will be starting a service project to make
lap quilts for the local hospitals. These quilts will not be done the same way.
We will be making tied quilts for this project so that we can get a number of
them done quickly. Later on, we can do a piece quilt, set up a quilting frame, and
quilt to make a special gift for someone. Don’t know who yet, but the name of
the person will come.
I have always enjoyed learning new
skills. Now, I am learning the joy of relearning the skills and the companionship
and fun that can come with it.
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