The Quilting Bee

Amelia awarded me this award. She wrote at the end of her blog, how some of us had become like sisters to her. That really got me thinking about what this all means to me.



When I started this blog, I wanted to get in touch with the quilting community. I don't belong to a guild or take classes, so it seemed like a great way to be in touch with other quilters. I figured I could learn from them, share with them and hopefully make some friends along the way. There was always the idea too, that I would become a quilting Diva like a few of the bloggers.

It didn't take long for me to realize that as a quilter, I pass muster but past that, naw. No Diva here, for one thing to be a quilting Diva, ya got to work at it. I quilt when the spirit moves, and it is for the most part, still a learning process. I also learned that there is so much more to me than quilting. I think quilts a lot during the day, I think fabric and books and patterns and notions, but there is more. I am enjoying making rag rugs right now, I have several things that I want to embroidery, books to read, recipes to try. So, the blog is who I am rather than a blog about quilting entirely.

The blog almost came to a crashing end more than once the first year. I felt like I was just chatting away with myself as I got very few comments and little input. That made me feel foolish. Just writing the blog was hard work, finding things to blog about and adding the different features to it was a real struggle. My computer skills grew about the same speed as my quilting skills do, slow........

Then I met a few ladies that I really identified with and things started looking up. Today as I near my 200th post, I know I would really miss my friends that I have made. It has become like a old time quilting bee in many respects.

Years ago when a group of quilters gathered around a quilt to work on it together, they surely chatted, caught up on every one's news. They may have shared a pattern, hints and even thread and fabric. They were no doubt at different levels of skill with the more experienced helping out the newbies. Then they chatted about their families, the kids and grand kids and the husbands. They shared recipes and news of what they were preparing in their kitchens. They talked about and shared their flower and veggie gardens. Now and then they went off and talked about what was bothering them, having a good rant and rave.

So, when I think about the blogs, I see a long distance quilting bee, spread over the weeks. There are tutorials to help newbies, patterns and shared fabrics, pictures and stories about family, recipes and shared prepared meals, wonderful pictures of what is growing in gardens across the country and beyond, and a occasional rant and rave.

I love my Cyber quilting bee and treasure the friends that I have made that make up that quilting bee. Thank you for the friendship and the fellowship. As Amelia said, you are indeed my sisters. I hope that my five will find five that they relate to and award the award to them as well.

I am supposed to award this to five blogs that I read on a regular basis, here goes. I can't award it to Amelia but she would definitely be on the list if I could. She is a take care of business lady who reminds me so much of the women in my great white hunter's family. They make them strong and caring in Oklahoma.

Belvie has become a dear friend. She lives in the Midwest and does the most beautiful applique. She and I are "housewives" and proud to be the rock that keeps our families together even though the kids are grown and out of the house. Her daily email and my cup of coffee start my day.

Finn and I share a love of scrappy! Her good heart and her salt of the earth goodness is hard to match. She takes me on trips down memory lane that I try to resist and then enjoy with my whole being.

Granny Lyn and I are twins! We seem to look at life through the same glasses. And, we both have liver spots on our aging hands!

Carol is my far away friend, living in Canada. I am old enough to be her mother, and grandma to her kids but that hasn't stopped a friendship from developing. She tries my recipes and reports the results. She is much braver than I ever was or will be, having gone skydiving not long ago.

Katie has been a friend from the very early days of my blog. She, too, does beautiful applique and stitching and I love seeing her work develop. She is a grandmother with a wonderful dog named Kipper.

There are others who pop in and out of my quilting bee, a few are new friends that I am just getting to know. If I haven't mentioned you, it does not mean that you are less important to me, I was limited to a small quilting bee of five this time. Beth, Kristie, Pam, Cheri, Patty, Fitzy and the rest, thank you for joining in now and then.