"I quilt but don't sew.. yet!"

I am missing my quilt class.. I can't tell you how sad I am. Julie was going to teach a cute bunny runner tonight.. So of course, I am thinking of quilting..which reminds me how much this little quote of mine always makes Deanna laugh.."I quilt but I don't sew".. Until I said it in Julie's Friday night class no one else understood me.. Julie and I are truly kindered spirits. I admire that girl but that is for another time..
I know how to piece and cut fabric for quilts.. I know how to use my rotary cutter to stack and whack fabric..I have proudly and with much love started with fabric and ended up with a quilt.. I understand quilt patterns and instructions.. In all the years that I have been quilting (almost ten thank you!) I have been oh so aware of my sewing limitations.. I look at Deanna's clothes and creations and covet the ease with which she whips them up.. I love the matter of fact way she says oh that's just a this and that.. as if I knew what those things meant..

I don't know how to read a McCalls or Buttewick or Vogue pattern. Until I made Christines awesome Birdie Sling I had never heard of a tailor's ham.. I do not know how to make clothes, or use the button making feature on my machine much less any other non-quilting related article of clothes.. I realize you may think well you should know how to since you have a machine and you have made quilts.. Well we should also drink 8 glass of water but that rarely is the case.. There in lies my point.. I have learned a specific set of skills that others would say mean I can sew but I and other real quilters know the truth.. I can only quilt.. ..I see sewing and quilting as related but separate talents..quilting is a smaller subset of the larger sewing family

For years quilting was enough.. Don't get me wrong, when I showed up in Susan G. class almost ten yrs ago carrying a garage sale sewing machine that had been in my mom's garage for some unknown reason, who would have thought I would still be quilting..(that is a story unto itself). I was there to learn, I had always dreamed of learning how to make A quilt. I thought I would take the class and make a baby quilt for Kelle's first baby and if I ever needed to make another I would know how.. I can laugh at myself now.. How clueless I was about the real joys of quilting and the realities that once the bee.. the Quilting Queen Bee bites she doesn't let you forget the pleasure of putting fabric together to make something from your imagination and heart..with your hands..

As my friendship with Deanna grew we discovered in eachother the love of fabric, mine for quilts and her for clothes.. Well as the interchangeables that we are.. I invited her to a quilting class and of course her fab sewing skills transferred easily to quilting.. I then got brave and thought I would try my hand at a non quilting item. I saw an Amy Butler patter for a cool fabric sling.. the Fabric spoke to me of Christine with its vibrant twists, turns and bohemian chic.. I want to try that I thought and then volunteered Deanna to teach/support me in my leap... Let me tell you, I am now ok with spending more than $20 on a purse as the mear instructions and tracing and reading of the pattern was more than $50 of anyones time not to mentione materials..If Deanna was charging me by the hour that purse would have been about $200.. it was work! What were all these instructions, patternese, and lining? Who knew? Not me.. I don't sew, remember? LOL.. I got through it with A LOT of help from My Friend.. Christine's bag was wrapped in time for Christmas. I am stil thinking about whether I have the guts to make one for myself... Someday..
Maybe..
So while I know how to quilt I am new to sewing.. I am working on Aprons next.. one piece of main fabric with accents.. I hope they are easy. I need a quick and easy sewing project to sustain my desire for learning to sew.. I have been warming up for months.. I have purchased a book with instructions on HOW TO SEW.. a novel concept. Had I read that book prior to taking on the Amy Butler Sling, I may have had half the questions for Deanna, but oh well. We got through it and I still want to sew..

Stay Tuned..
Alex