Quilt Camp Confessions

At one point yesterday evening, as I began to despair at ever getting my huge quilt done, I thought of my grandmother. When I asked her to teach me to quilt, she snorted and said, "Why would you want to quilt when you can just go to Wal-Mart and buy a blanket for six dollars?"That price tells you how long ago it was. And yet, that dismissal remains. I think of how many people during Quilt Camp were astonished at my quilting by hand, by my quilting at all. Most people at Quilt Camp send their project to their favorite long arm quilter and pay to have the quilting done. And then they still need to do the binding to finish the quilt.At times yesterday, I enjoyed the quilting with the multiple memories the fabric inspired: the few bits from clothes my grandmother made me, the bit from the quilt I made for my now-grown nephew for his first big boy bed, the various squares put together in slightly different ways, my experiment with smaller and smaller scraps. I thought of all the various…