Teaching my mom to be a quilt addict

My mom is learning to quilt. If you ask her, she’ll say she’s learning how to make table runners and she doesn’t want to make large quilts. But I just think she hasn’t been fully indoctrinated yet.

She has a very demanding job and is looking for something fun to do to relax. So I’ve been teaching her how to make a simple table runner from a charm pack. I made dozens of these when I was first starting to quilt. They’re really easy because there’s very little cutting involved. You just have to lay out the charm squares in a pattern that is pleasing to you, sew them into rows and sew the rows into the table runner top. Easy peasy.

She’s doing really well, learning how to sew a consistent quarter-inch seam, press her patchwork so the seams abut, quilt in straight lines using a walking foot and bind by hand.

While I worked on binding my sister’s baby quilt, my mom put the final stitches in her first project, a spring table runner made from a charm pack in my stash. We looked like quite the pair sitting on the couch together sewing binding on our projects.

But the reason why I think it is just a matter of time before she graduates onto bigger projects, is she has already caught the fabric bug. Before she even had her first top pieced, she bought two more charm packs and coordinating yardage for more table runners. Then when we were on a family trip to the quilt shop to pick out fabric for my sister’s baby quilt, she spotted yet another project, a duck panel with a pieced border.

When she spotted it she said, loudly so my sister could hear, “That’s like what we worked on last weekend right?” referring to the giraffe baby quilt we made with my cousin for my sister’s baby. My sister wasn’t supposed to know about the quilt and she looked from my mom to me with an, I know you’re up to something look.

I shot my mom a warning glance, hoping she’d get the hint not to say any more and told her that it was definitely a project she could handle.

That night we had a family craft night. My grandma knitted, my sister crocheted and my mom was supposed to be working on her first table runner project. But instead I helped her cut out the panel and borders because she just couldn’t wait to get started.

So she’s been quilting for about six months, has finished one project (two if you count the baby quilt we made with my cousin for my sister), two UFOs and a fabric for a third project. I think she’s going to fit in just fine with the rest of us quilt addicts.