Introduction to quilting

Quilting, as I learned from my wife Carole , is the mating with thread, by hand or machine three layers of material: the top layer, batting in the middle ,and backing..

When my wife and her sewing buddies talked about quilting, they were talking  about using beautifully designed sheets of cotton fabric cut into small pieces sewn together to form beautiful designs where the colors are prominent. This is the general format of the top layer.

So the designs in the original sheets of fabric can barely be noticed and admired; one form of art replaces another.

Let me mention some of the pitfalls I encountered as a quilting aide to my wife.

First of all I need to mention we were both left handed; the tools and aids needed were for right handed people. However, scissors are available to left-handed people who were weaned on right scissors. My wife never bought a left handed one, during her sixty years of sewing! Hence. I never ever thought about using a pair of scissors made for lefties.

Another perverse challenge for me was cutting smallish pieces from the beautiful largish sheets of cotton material. I had to teach myself to cut fabric opposite from  the project’s instructions. It was really interesting to cut fabric using a special template, which came with the project how- to booklet. The part that was a blast was demonstrating how to use the templates to right –  handed quilters. My wife , even during the early stages of dementia, delegated the use of the templates to me.

The last several years I was invited to sit-in during the quilter’s quilting classes. Carole’s hand tremors were more of an issue than the loss of memory. She was an expert at using the sewing machines ; she had four of them. Her job was to just sew.

Cutting fabric was no slam dunk for me. Once in a while, cutting the fabric with a single roller blade  cutting tool, my cuts were not to the required measurements. Cutting new pieces was not an option for my frugal mate. Consequently we embarked on “ save the cutters ass” mode. She would stretch or iron the piece to get it to “fit.” If that didn’t fix the problem, I had to sort through a pile of like pieces to find one that was a “better” fit. My sorting was performed with a small ruler, with the assistance of a magnifying lens; my worst nightmare.

The actual quilting on the first project ( I selected the colors ) was to sew in the ditch! What an experience and a real pain. It was designed to cover a twin size bed. It became my blanket while I slept on the couch in the den. Watching all the NCIS programs on TV was tranquilizing for me.

I digressed. Back to sewing in the ditch.

Let me list the steps we took to accomplish this feat: tape each layer of material ( the backing first followed by the batting and finally the top layer which has all those pieces sewn together ) to a large table. The three layers are pinned together first using large curved safety pins. Then the project is removed from the table and then the layers are sewn together by sewing over existing seams.

The quit is finished after the sides are trimmed and the binding ( thin strips of material) sewn around the ends of the project.

I’ll list two additional steps I needed to pin the layers together: put a bandaid on the traumatized fingers and then  blot the blood from the project with hydrogen  peroxide.