Quilt in a Year

It’s the first Friday of the month and I’m back as promised.

Therefore I am here to proudly unveil what I will be bringing to you this year, and I’m going to type it out like a wedding vow so that you know just how serious I am about it.

I, TJ.
Do solemnly swear.
To share the progress I make
as I embark on this journey
of sewing my very first quilt.

Maybe this proclamation doesn’t dazzle you, but please let me explain.

I know many of you have made quilts.  I’ve heard of quilt clubs and quilters guilds, people who sew a quilt in a week or (gulp) in a day.  Who are you people?  Logically I know it can be done.  I’ve heard the rumors.  But I am not one who wanders among these talented people.

I am among the people who gather materials, sketch ideas, get stoned on Pinterest imagery and think an awful lot about the quilt I’m going to someday make.

It started out way back in high school.  A girl I knew had a denim quilt with a red velvet back.  This thing was so heavy it took two of us to lift it.  You could lay under it and pretend it was an outer-space gravity suit.  Anyway, it was cool and I knew if I were ever going to have one that I would have to start saving denim.

And so I did.

Pretty soon the scraps piled up but there were never enough to make a quilt.  I moved my cardboard box of scraps with me wherever I roamed.  At first it was apartment after apartment.  Then it was a house, then another apartment, then another house, then a move overseas.  One box grew into two.  Boxes marked “DENIM” have been lugged around by professional movers at least four or five times, have been in and out of storage, in attics, in basements and in closets.  So if you’re not catching on here, the boxes have been around.  If denim had a reputation, the neighbors would be talking.

Not only have the boxes been around, they’ve been invested in.  I have paid people to move them.  Repeatedly.  I have paid fees to store them.  I have endured the strained patience of my German husband every time he has come across one over the years, “Ack ja, the DENIM box,” he says…every time. (He never caught on that there were two in the end.  Maybe because I marked one “fragile” to throw him off the case).

But I’ll have you know that the boxes contain some old and meaningful fabric.  Once when I got the nerve to look through them I discovered a pair of jeans that my little brother had outgrown when I first started collecting.  These jeans nearly fit my son now.  This means my brother and I grew up, then I went on to grow a human life in my womb and then the womb-child has now grown enough to fit into a pair of the jeans I have been dragging around the world for nearly 20 years.  Oh, and speaking of my womb…there’s a pair of those elastic waist maternity britches in there too!  Just now this week as I took all the jeans out for these photos I started trying a bunch of them back on as if they would magically fit again or not have holes in indecent places.

Needless to say it’s probably about time that I either get rid of the denim OR I plunk my butt down and finally get serious.  I’m thinking it’s time to assess what’s there and use my machine to connect all the pieces until it becomes a coherent and recognizable thing.  I would not have hung onto these boxes as long as I have unless I really wanted this quilt. What do you think?  Am I ever going to make it? Is there hope for me?

I take thee denim, to have and to hold.
From this day forward, for better or for worse.  (And I suspect a lot of worse because I might be a rookie but denim is really heavy so I imagine as the project gets bigger it’s going to be a wrestling match).
For richer, for poorer (maybe now is a good time to mention again the considerable amount of money I already have invested in you, stupid quilt).
In sickness and in health (everybody needs a quilt when they’re sick so winner, winner, chicken dinner for me).
Until death, which cannot even part us because if I ever manage to complete this project you can bet your sweet buns I will want to be wrapped in you for eternity.

TJ Goerlitz is a mixed media artist who pretends to be a seamstress whenever possible.  Come connect with her on her site, Studio Mailbox, her Facebook page, or in Pinterest.  Join in the story of the denim quilt every first Friday of the month where she will share her progress (or non-progress) right here with the readers of The Sewing Loft.