I remember waking up early on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons. The Jetsons and Yogi Bear were among my favorites. I especially liked the way Jane could look so perfectly made up when talking on her futuristic phone. If I could make that come true I might be tempted to use FaceTime or Skype….until then, no thank you.

I’ve been trying to think of a weekly blog that would be interesting (hopefully) for my readers and something fun for me to ramble about…and with a tagline of “Let’s Talk Quilts” what better than to begin a series called Quilt Story Saturday!

Welcome to my first Quilt Story Saturday!

Many of you are recent subscribers, so let me start off by saying welcome and thank you! I hope to not only entertain you but along the way to inspire you in your own quilting journey. Indeed, let’s talk quilts! Pour that second cup of whatever morning beverage strikes your fancy and settle in for a little ramble!

My Colorful Past

No, this is not the airing of my laundry – this is the name of a quilt I made years ago that I thought would be a perfect way to start this new series. I called it My Colorful Past because it was made up of orphan blocks left over from various quilting projects. My youngest son calls it fabric throw up and says I should never show this in public – but once I shared the story behind it,  he sorta relented (but only a little)….who knows…perhaps you will too.

Beauty Is Behind The Scenes

Orphan blocks, we all have them. Sometimes they are left over from a quilt, other times perhaps they were a block pattern we tried and decided we didn’t want to proceed any further…If you are like me, they are hard to discard. I mean, there’s perfectly good fabric there! Not to mention time and vision for grandeur.

Each section of this quilt tells a story, and throughout the next few Saturdays, I will be sharing those stories with you as well as behind the scenes of other quilts. I hope you will join me!

Turning Twenty

I don’t exactly remember the year I made this quilt – if I could locate it then perhaps, just perhaps, it would have a label on it and I would know…however, it’s in storage somewhere (that’s a whole ‘nuther story)…

What I do remember about this quilt was picking out all the fat quarters! Back at the turn of the century (grin), I worked on Saturdays at a quaint little quilt shop on Galveston Island called Quilts By The Bay.  Being surrounded by such beautiful fabric had me trading time for supplies that’s for sure! And boy oh boy, did I love the juvenile print section, the novelty fabrics and all the tropical florals! Yep…found my happy place! And I turned it into a quilt!

Quilt Stories – Sharing the Memory

I will have to dig through the old photos to try to find the retreat where I put together My Colorful Past – I think my quilting buddies thought I’d lost my mind…but sewing this together at the retreat is also part of the story. Nothing better than quilting with friends!

Do your quilts do that? Invoke memories? Perhaps thoughts of purchasing the fabric on a shop hop or special vacation or even just supporting your local quilt shop and keeping up with the new lines of fabric that are “just in“…Then there’s the fun of picking out just the right pattern – or perhaps you picked out the pattern first and then went on the treasure hunt to find the fabric? Either way, you were making memories as you were preparing to make a quilt. And that’s just the beginning!

I Need Color

Almost as much as I need to ramble, or the air that I breathe, I need color! Living in “brown” these past 5 months post-Harvey finally caught up with me yesterday and I was a true “Debbie Downer” (apologies to all the Debbie’s out there, nothing personal). I think the constant unsettled living got the best of me and I hate to admit that I did totally lose it to the point my eyes were swollen so much from crying that I couldn’t focus. Not from the loss of stuff or even the hard work of trying to triage my household into what goes to long-term storage, what goes to easy access storage and what goes to the RV for the temporary living…but perhaps as much for the lack of color which is my inspiration, my creative outlet.

"Weeping endures for the night, 
but joy comes in the morning"

I think even the tears of yesterday were for a purpose…when searching for an image to go along with a verse on my mind when I woke up this morning I came across a very good blog post that I helped me to not judge myself so harshly for not always coping with things and getting a little down. I also was reminded that I am not alone and those bad days are temporary.

Indeed, sometimes it’s in the darkest moments we see the light. And for me, the colorful memories and the hope of more colorful creations in the future. It’s not so much as a longing for the good ole days as it is needing a fresh vision, a hope for tomorrow. The good news is – there’s always hope for tomorrow!

When Life Gives You Scraps, Make a Quilt!

Take a little time today for yourselves dear reader,  perhaps just to linger over the morning beverage a little longer, perhaps to just sit and be still….or better yet a little quilt therapy! Go fondle your fabric and dream of future creations! Then be sure to join me next week for Quilt Story Saturday as I share another section of My Colorful Past!

This is Karen Overton, The Quilt Rambler,  sharing the journey, one quilt at a time.

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