Quilting is About the Fun!

For many of us our quilting started out VERY FUN! Can you remember how it felt to be a new quilter? The EXCITEMENT of picking out fabric for a new project? Reading the pattern... then making the quilt? How you could not WAIT to get started on it, continue to work on it, and then FINISH it to, share?

You thought about it like a new boyfriend.. what's the fabric doing while I'm at work? Has it rearranged itself into a better color selection while I was gone? Does my fabric miss me?

Then as time goes on we quilters can get a bit (or a LOT) bogged down in the DETAILS of quilting. We worry and fret that our points will be chopped off, that we have the perfect seam allowance, and are all our seams ironed the 'right' way so our back looks as perfect as the front (I don't' get that part myself.. hehe!).

So... what happened to the Fun? It's gone isn't it. Have you ever DREADED working on a quilt project? I bet you have, and guess what... that is not a hobby anymore... it's a job. And our quilting should never become a job. (well.. yes mine IS my job.. but that's different...)

So I DECLARE for all to hear, let's put the FUN back into quilting! The pure joy of the fabric hunt, the girlfriend shopping trip, the making of a quilt for the beauty of it.

Let us quilt for fun, not for competition.

Let us quilt for the joy, not for a deadline

Let us quilt for the excitement, not for 'gasp' someone else!

When was the last time you made a quilt without a purpose (yes.. you ARE allowed to just MAKE a quilt).

When was the last time you bought fabric, ran home then started cutting and sewing with abandon? Smiling and singing and calling your friends to say what FUN you were having?

Ahh... I thought as much... can't remember when that was can you?

One weekend in February I devoted to the pure FUN of quilting. The pure JOY of playing with my fabric and creating a thing of beauty just because. It was not FOR anyone, nor FOR any show, or FOR any deadline. It did not have to be perfect (gasp!) and not being perfect was better as I worked fast and got more done.

And when I did this I invited every quilter I could find to join me in a virtual retreat!

I issued the challenge of using orange fabric and some buddy colors. The goal was to experiment with orange and see how it looked with other fabric. Did I like it? Not like it?

So on this weekend we sewed, we shared, we visited my friends online, and we had prize giveaways.. woot! We talked about what we ate, what we didn't cook, what we bought when we went shopping and we shared our photos.. Lots and LOTS of photos. The show and tell was AWESOME!

We had fun and we proved to ourselves that quilting can and should be a hobby of joy, creativity, learning, and excitement!

I truly believe that what you do for your hobby and your enjoyment should be fun and not a chore. We/You/Me should look forward to our quilting and enjoy it.

I challenge you to put the fun back, not tomorrow, not next week but right now. Put down your ruler, erase your frown, pack up the dull fabrics and your boring projects. Get busy on the art of fun, fun in quilting, oh yeah baby you can do it.... like you did when you when it was a fresh new love!

.... send me a note and tell me how and WHAT you did!

And many of you know I ADORE quotes.. so a few

"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home." Twyla Tharp

"An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight...The truly wise person is color-blind."—Albert Schweitzer

"The Future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams" = Eleanor Roosevelt

“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.” Dr. Seuss

These things are fun and fun is good." Dr. Seuss (I even put THIS one on a quilt.. check my webstore on the kit page... enjoy!)

Find the pattern for Pat's Celebrate! Eat Cake shown above.

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