I love quilts--all kinds, but the ones that truly melt my heart are always kind of scrappy, whimsical and not exactly perfect. They exude a cozy kind of charm--the gift of the human touch perhaps? 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. I love the soft, crinkly goodness that embeds itself directly into the seams and produces an amazing texture. I look forward to that time spent with the hoop and I'm pretty 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 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 people who appreciate and use them, 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 when all I want to do is play with the fabric. Or maybe I want to do some 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 the quilt room. Hand quilting happens at least five nights a week on a regular basis so no matter what else is going on, at least one quilt top is reliably progressing toward a true-blue completion.
I definitely seem to have a thing for simple applique that seems to stack up faster than I can blink. Applique makes my motor run or my skirt blow up, makes my endorphins do a happy dance. That's really the best way to describe how it works. It's just that fabulous. I try to make sure the sheer volume of applique projects doesn't get too overwhelming, though it often feels like a losing battle. There is only so much time in a day and then you can only depend on a few of those hours being available for quilting. So sad. You can always contact me at: audkateaster at gmail dot com.
