I love quilts--all kinds, but the ones that truly melt my heart are always kind of scrappy, whimsical and not exactly perfect. Is there a genre for that? They exude a cozy kind of charm, what I like to call the gift of the human touch. Antique utility quilts are still my favorite form of inspiration though I happily follow all kinds of quilting.
Most of my quilts are hand quilted with perle cotton thread in a 17"x17" hand held q-snap frame held in my lap. I love the soft, crinkly goodness that embeds itself directly into the seams and produces such an amazing texture. I look forward to that time spent with the hoop and I'm pretty sure it makes me a nicer person all the way around! I'm always working from a backlog of quilt tops that tends to grow by leaps and bounds. One way or another there seems to remain at least 20 quilt tops still languishing in the quilt top drawers, no matter how dedicated I am to the finishing up stage. Mostly, I've found that there is something very interesting about the influence of older quilt projects to newer ones {and vise versa}, as I continue to have both in some sort of progress. I don't plan to ever give up hand quilting, slow though it is at times. After all of these quilty years, it's become an essential part of my voice, look and style.
I always say that the makes are for myself, but sometimes a quilt decides to go live with someone else. Occasionally this causes a bit of regret and sorrow, but only for a little while. Giving quilts is like giving love and a warm, cozy hug. Gifting them for the right reason, to the right person, can be a wonderful thing to be a part of.
I often have several quilt projects going on at the same time because it seems to be more efficient in the long term. There are days when I'm in the mood to chain piece, but other days all I want to do is play with fabric. Or maybe it's a day for needle turn applique. It all seems to work/flow most of the time, so I don't get too terribly stressed about the number of ufo's taking up space in my little quilt room. Hand quilting happens at least five nights a week {if I'm lucky} so no matter what else is going on, at least one quilt top is reliably progressing toward a true-blue completion.
Feel free to contact me at: audkateaster at gmail dot com.
