"I have NO interest in EVER making a Quilt!"

This week is my Mom's birthday.

Over the past six months I have spent a lot of time with my parents out in Arizona. It's the most time I've spent with them since before I went to college (way back in the mists of time) and it's been really nice getting to know them in a new way, as adults.

A few years ago I was teaching in Arizona, and my parents came out to see me "in action." My mom was observing a class, and someone asked her if she quilted as well. To this she emphatically replied "I have NO interest in EVER making a quilt!" That sentiment has been repeated to me again on several occasions in the past few months. My grandmothers were the ones who got me started quilting; though I never actually quilted with them, they made the many hand-stitched quilts that my family slept under, and I grew up not knowing that a blanket was anything other than a hand-made quilt. When Mom's mother died, she was in the middle of making a quilt for me, and finishing that quilt is what got me started quilting.

NEVERTHELESS, Mom was the person who taught me how to sew when I was around 10 years old, so even though she has no interest in quilting, she is responsible for getting me sewing. And so, a few years ago, for her 80th birthday, I made her this quilt.

The blocks are vintage sewing machines from a panel by Dan Morris. My Mom still sews on her Singer 401 from the 1950's (or maybe even earlier). And yes, this is a Free-Motion Mastery in a Month quilt, quilted one block at a time, then cut up and reassembled.  Here's a block quilted, cut and reassembled:





Eventually I'll get around to writing instructions for doing curved quilt-as-you-go. But for now, I just want to share the quilt, thank Mom for teaching me to sew, and and wish her