Stormy Stitches

As a child, the only version of quilting in my head was huge quilts pulled taut on wooden quilting frames and secured with oversized, flat headed thumb tacks and C-clamps. I'd say I had a love hate relationship with those thumb tacks, except there was no love- just hate. Those things bruised your fingers trying to push them in and bloodied them trying to pry them out with your fingernails. Don't get me started about pushing enormous needles, threaded with yarn, through the three layers of material and batting and then back up again. If you love your thumbs- DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. Maybe it's just my flawed teenage memory, but I swear we tied quilts for every single youth activity from ages 12 to 18. So after I was of legal age to make my own decisions I declared to the world that I HATED quilting. I remained true to this manifesto well into my adult life. There were three separate tragedies that led me to change my mind. (I know- buzzkill - sorry.) Several years ago in Jul