movie HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT

Back in 1998 I saw the movie, 'HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT'. That movie talks (through Maya Angelou)in part about how a quilt is the weaving of one's life experiences into the threads of a quilt. And how each fabric, each square, each stitch... are all parts of a person's life, their experiences, feelings and relationship with all that is around them. I had asked one of the kids I made a quilt for in 1998 (who's quilt I will share later on in this blog), to write about the clouds, moon, stars, sun, rain etc~~ in the context of his own life experiences and his own home town back in Maryland.

How do I make a quilt more personal for the people I make them for? I want the quilt to reflect as much as possible the things held most dear by the receiver. It is something I have seen in my own life with the quilts others have made for me and those I have made for others as well. When I make quilts for others as a gift, I try to pick fabrics that speak to me about who the other person is. If the person I am making the quilt for picks their own fabrics, still I can see why they pick what they do and it makes it even more personal and fun for me to stitch together their life into this quilt. I remember my mother teling me that friendship and love are the strongest threads in a marriage and it seems to be the same in a quilt stitched with love that I make for others. I wonder if those quilts I made that sold through galleries or through the craft fairs(once I got pretty good at making quilts), could the people who bought them feel the love and care and see what I saw as I pieced the varoius fabrics into a whole quilt? Did the quilt speak to them as the fabrics had to me, when I first designed them? The quilt patterns, as well as the fabrics each have had a voice of their own for me as I stitched them. Some were quiet, calm and peaceful to make while others were very loud, and attention getting for their bright colors, made even more loud by the quilt pattern picked. LOL there have even been quilts I have made for others that I had to wear sunglasses while making because the colors were so bright and my window faced south! Some quilts speak of nature, others speak of personalities, and still others speak of moods - yet each one is a story in itself, as was the quilt being made in the movie HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT. If you haven't seen that movie I recommend it in hopes that it will speak to you as it had to me.
When I am in quilting mode, I put 5 very different CDs into my stereo and hit shuffle for 5 hours of music. Not all CDs will have singing, yet they each bring me happy moods as I quilt. I find such peace in the solitude and my spirit soars, then in time I realize that I have found myself in an almost ZEN like state of mind. I love these times of calm, when around me may be chaos. Chaos doesn't touch me while I quilt. IF I am having a bad day, I try to remind myself that quilting calms me and to go do a bit of sewing to calm my inner turmoil... and in no time at all I am in that happy place I love to be!