Quilting Heals

Published: Thu, 12/20/12

Message from Leah Day

Hi ,

Uggh what a week! I know I'm not alone in feeling extremely sad and scared following the horrible events in Connecticut last week. My son James is 5 years old so it's probably no surprise that this hit close to home for my family.

To make sense of my emotions and regain some sense of control over my life and fears, I've spent a lot of time quilting this week. There is something simple, peaceful, and healing in every step of making a quilt. The best analogy I have is this feels like I'm piecing myself back together again, with each stitch a prayer for those touched by this tragedy.

Monday I shared a quilt design I've had in progress on the Free Motion Quilting Project and my plans to teach using this quilt all next year. The name of the quilt is Express Your Love and it is all about learning to show love to those we love the most every single day.

The meaning of this quilt seems even more important now, and I look forward to teaching you many things with this design. Read more about it and see photos right here.

Free Motion Quilt Along

The end is in sight! Quilt Along #45 is the last Along for 2012 and this week we learned a beautiful design called Heart Confetti.

This interesting heart design is easy to stitch on a big scale which makes it a great choice for quilting over the whole surface of a quilt.

Learn how to quilt this pretty design right here.

Now this will be the last tutorial type video for this year, but next week we will still be linking up! I really hope you will pull out your camera and shoot a "before" photo of a quilt you made at the beginning of the year, and an "after" photo of something you have made recently.

It would be wonderful to see how much your free motion quilting ability has changed in the last year so make sure to participate next week on December 26th.

UFO Sunday

This UFO Sunday, I set another new goal - no more crocheted or knitted UFOs!

I've been able to crochet and knit for many years, but I never seem to finish ANYTHING. Does that happen to you? Do you have any particular hobbies / crafts that seem super prone to unfinished projects?

I think it's high time we take the UFO out of crochet especially because it's so popular now and thanks to sites like www.Ravelry.com.

And if you have no idea what that site is about, please go check it out today!

Now it's time to get off the computer once again and find something to sink some stitches into.

Whether it's quilting or binding by hand, standing to cut fabric, or sitting at the machine to piece or free motion quilt, this craft is soothing to my soul. Let's go make something beautiful today.

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day