Why purrfectly imperfect? Because I’m a relatively new quilter (3 years) and lets just face it, there’s nothing “purrfect” with my quilts. I think that’s part of the fun, beauty and quirkiness with my hobby. And, of course, I love cats! My sewing companion is my awesome sphynx cat, Pearl. She will literally sit with me for hours while I measure, cut and sew. She’s great company!
I’m new to blogging as well. Hopefully, you will find my thoughts and ongoing list of projects fun and interesting to follow and read about.
Let me start with why I began quilting in the first place. My daughter, Brianna, passed away on September 9, 2014. I wanted to be able to hold onto her clothes, but in a healthy way. I mentioned to my husband that I would like to make us a quilt made out if her clothes. He thought it was a great idea. I found places that we could ship her clothing to, but I honestly didn’t want someone we didn’t know creating something that was so personal for us. I decided that I should learn how to do it myself. I needed to find somewhere to take lessons.
On an afternoon, driving through Littlestown, Pennsylvania, my husband, Chris, says to me, “Did you see that?” I respond with, “see what?”. He said he saw a sign for a quilt shop. I told him I didn’t see it. So, he turns the car around. Low and behold, he indeed saw a quilt shop, Simply Stashing, so we stopped in. Keep in mind this is only 4-6 weeks since we lost our daughter. Once inside, we looked around and asked if they offered quilt lessons. We were told that they did do group classes. Then, I got nervous. I didn’t want to learn how to cut Brianna’s clothes and quilt them with a group of strangers. I knew it would be emotional for me and asked if they offered private lessons. That’s when we met Deb Curtis, my quilt guru. We explained what we wanted to do and she offered private lessons for us. Yes, I said us. Chris wanted to help create our memorial quilt for our daughter. My husband is the best, he did almost all off the cutting of Brianna’s clothes for our quilt, and I did all the sewing. We had Deb professionally longarm quilt it for us. We keep Briannas quilt on our bed and use it everyday.
I continue to make quilts with Brianna’s clothes for our family and friends. This way everyone that knew and loved her can have a little piece of Brianna with them. The rule is that if you receive one, you have to use it. Brianna wouldn’t want anyone to hang it for display, she’d want everyone to use them. And we hope that when anyone wraps themself in their quilt, they think of Brianna.
So far, Briannas memorial quilts span in 4 states, Maryland, Virginia, Texas and Colorado.
For inquiring minds, I design and create these quilts myself. I purchased the computer program Electric Quilt 7, from Deb at Simply Stashing. It makes it easy as pie!
That’s it. That’s how I became inspired to learn to quilt. Now, I’m hooked.
Purrfectly Imperfect 