Quilt the Book

I signed up for an online class called Quilting 101- Patchworking the Perfect Plot by Suzanne Johnson.  The class started weeks ago while I was preparing for my book launch, but I'm still eager to dive in to the lessons and do them even though I couldn't participate along with the class.  The opportunity to take this class got me pondering how long it's been since I actually quilted a quilt.  (Like some stories I've written, I do have some unfinished quilts waiting in line for my attention.)

Anyone who has been in my home has seen what quilts mean to me and how I adore them.  They are my passion, my pass-time.

Yes, I'm a quilter.  There's something about cutting out shapes of different prints and textures and sewing them all together.  I've got quilts hung on my walls.  Quilts draped over beds.  I've made quilts as gifts.  Taught quilting classes.  I LOVE quilts!  (Though I still haven't made the most coveted quilt of all— the Amish quilt, deep winter colors set against black.)

Many years ago, when LTC was stationed at Fort Leavenworth, it was always a boon to visit a quilting store that I loved, located in Osage, Kansas.  I have to admit I never got to Paduka, KY, to visit the Quilting Museum there.  That had been one of my goals.  But LTC took me to Keepsake Quilting in New Hampshire years ago.  Keepsake Quilting is a fabulous store where everything is quilted or catered to quilting.  In fact, I've been getting their catalogue for years and flipping through the pages wishing I had more time and my fingers were nimble enough to quilt those tiny stitches again.

But I digress.  Why?  Nothing we do is for nothing. 

You see, my love of quilting also prepared me for piecing together characters and plots, conflict and motivation, goals and resolutions in my writing.  Consistent stitches reflect the overall theme that must be weighed against every essence of story structure, as well as every day I sit and type at the keyboard.  Perfectly squared edges or rounded borders have to fit their partner pieces in order to complete the overall design.  Color, theme, and texture vs character motivation and external and internal conflict provide the meat of the piece, whether in a story or a quilt.

Doesn't that give you the warm fuzzies?

We live our lives, not realizing what will feed into our passion for writing.  Everything we see, everything we do or say, becomes a piece in the quilt or story that will complete the whole.  We are the result of our environment.  We are the product of our experiences.  Without the pieces we attain, we cannot tap into the emotion and intensity a character needs in order to please our final goal... readers.

Life is a puzzle and we are each a piece that benefits the whole.  And whether we quilt or write, we're in charge of how that puzzle is completed and resolved.

Do you like to put together puzzles?  Have you ever associated writing with quilting?  And if you were a quilter, what color theme would you choose?

Katherine
www.katherinebone.com
Duke by Day, Rogue by Night Available now at Crimson Romance

Cold or Not, Quilts Warm My Soul

Southern Januarys often mean a wide range of temperatures. It could be 28 one day and 68 the next. And regardless of the temperature, I tend to be cold anyway. No matter, a good old fashioned quilt is what’s for comfort. Why, you ask? Cotton, of course. It breathes. Thankfully, my Grannie kindly instilled in me a great love for handmade quilts.

When I went off to college (a great 70.3 miles away from home!), Grannie packed me a care package that she said would comfort me when I needed it. Unlike most girls my age, my box was a little different, containing a set of someone’s leftover Old Britain Castles-Brown, Johnson Brothers dishes with teapot included (not so pretty as the Peaches and Blossoms which I would’ve loved) and a passed down homemade double wedding ring quilt. One has to wonder if there was a hidden agenda to that box!

Maybe we’ll talk about dishes another day. But today let me tell you about my love for quilts. That first quilt was bubblegum pink and ivory with flecks of green, soft and worn so as to drape around you when you pulled it close. But the thing weighed as much as an Army tank! And that cotton compilation was the heaviest, most comforting thing around. At night, I would pull it close and it would warm me right to the very marrow of my bones.

I’m not sure when the transition was made from cotton batting to synthetic in quilt making (I am not and do not claim to be a quilt expert), but to my southern soul it was a move away from what’s right. And sadly, even Grannie went that newfangled way of thinking. She got it in her head sometime in her 90s that she would make all the grandkids a quilt. And she did. All 36 of them! And bless her heart, every last one of ‘em was filled with synthetic batting. Mine is the ugliest brown collage of uncle’s shirts (To match those before mentioned dishes, I’m sure. Sigh.). But ugly as it might be, it’s the most desired quilt in the house even today. And it has her signature in the bottom right hand corner, embroidered by my Aunt Mary for long recognition (in neon orange to match the color-blinded-earthiness of the brown fabrics, no less).

I saw a quilt show at the Huntsville Museum of Art a while back that gave me pause….to reflect, to reconsider and to think on the special qualities I was given in my quilts. The love and care that went into them without words or notes, just love transferred in fabrics and threads by the giver. Though the quilts at the museum were beautiful… some infused with gold threads, some of landscape scenes, all of ordered composition… they lacked the love my Grannie Quilt has.

I tell myself that someday I’ll make a new quilt, infused with cotton only. Maybe it’ll match itself, maybe not. Maybe by use of a pattern, maybe not. But today, I’ll stay toasty warm under my Grannie Quilt and be thankful for the warmth and love and happy memories it provides. And if it gets colder out, I may add on the Blue Daisies Quilt, or the Patriotic Star Quilt, or the myriad of others around the house….just for comfort, mind you!

So how do you stay warm on a January day, cold or not? What comforts the marrow of your bones?