You only THINK you know what quilting is!

Whew! To say I am tired would be an understatement! I apologize that I don't have a pic to add to this post.  I could add a pic of another iPad case, but let's just say, they are selling VERY WELL.  I just finished my fourth order, and I have fabric in the washer for number five and fabric for number six being shipped as I write this blog.  As well as, I received orders for a table runner and a complete kitchen ensemble including coasters, trivets, pot holders and a matching apron! My handmade items department is doing well to say the least.  My online fabric shop still averages one to two orders per week so it's a good passive income producer.  My private classes start in about two weeks and my parks and rec classes start in June.  I am currently trying to create a catalog of handmade products, available fabrics, patterns, books and quilting supplies so that I can begin in-home shopping experiences that would also offer my products and class opportunities to another kind of audience.   I am getting WAY into modern quilt styles where lines aren't straight and backs aren't plain.  I will be attending my very first meeting of the Columbus Modern Quilt Guild later this week and I can't wait to meet other people out there who are Gen X'ers like myself or even, dare I say, younger!  As a quilter who has been reintroduced to the quilting world, I have seen a shift in WHO a "quilter" is since I began quilting thirteen years ago.  One week ago I sold a quilt basting gun from my online shop.  The purchaser was a man.  The next day, I was at a local quilt shop buying fabric for one of the plethora of iPad cases I've made and there was a younger man who looked to be late twenties, maybe thirty and was getting advice from one of the quilt shop employees on how to make his QUILT! Could it be possible that quilting is NOT something that old ladies sit around and do all afternoon while they watch their "stories?"  Could it be that quilting is BOTH ART and SCIENCE? Could it be that WOMEN and MEN of any age or walk of life could want to create these works of art? Yes, works of art--not blankets--but one of a kind works of art. Even a handmade iPad case is a one of a kind with no other exactly like it. That's something you can't get at Wal-Mart. Allow me to add that quilting is not for the unintelligent. I have done more math in the last fourth months than I previously did in years!  Do you realize that pattern designers who create how the pattern will work and then present it in a way so that a person who has never made the item will understand it are both engineer and teacher? Fabric designers are artists and quilt shop owners and people like me who sell fabric, finished products, books and supplies are presidents and CEO's of our own little piece of the American dream? Quilting is not what you think it is, it's everything that you don't know it is until you've tried it and if a crazy, creative, mathematician, engineer, teacher, entrepreneur, straight lines and curves kind of person lives inside you....well, you will be hooked and you'll wonder how you were ever complete before someone introduced you to quilting. Then you will be amazed at the places it will take you.  For those of you who swear you don't have a crafty bone in your body, it's all good, we old quilters will provide you with all the beautiful items you could possible want in your home and in your life---but don't bother us until "Days of our Lives" is over....