Do You Have a Quilting Muse?
Writers say they have “muses” that inspire them with their work. Once at a writers’ workshop I attended, the teacher instructed us to describe our muse, either in words or a sketch.
Until then I didn’t even know I had a muse or was supposed to! However, as I put pencil to paper, a whimsical lady appeared, who seemed to be floating in air above a desk with my work. Now when I’m asked if I have a muse she comes to mind.
Does this apply to my quilting, too.? Could you say that someone or something inspires you…one person or feeling more than others?
My thoughts of quilting so often go back to my grandmother sitting in her rocking chair beside the kitchen woodstove on winter evenings when I was ill with anemia and spent much time with her and my aunt at their Trails End Farm. There Nanny taught me to stitch quilt pieces together from the flowered sacks the chicken feed came in.
Nanny’s mother-in-law was a quilter, too, although she had died before I was born. However, these ladies, along with stories my mother told about quilting on the farm when she was small, linger in my mind as I ponder my Trails End qulting heritage.
So, if I were to say I had a muse, it might be the lingering aura of the Trails End quilting ladies.
Do you have someone or something that inspires you with your quilting?
Tags: ancestral+quilts, authors, feed+sack+fabrics, quilt+history, quilter, quilters, quilting, quilting+memories, quilting+muse, quilts, Trails_End_Quilters, writers+museRelated Stories
POSTED IN: General Quilting/Patchwork, Quilting / Patchwork Books and Magazines, Quilting / Patchwork Memories, Quilting/Patchwork Misc.
2 opinions for Do You Have a Quilting Muse?
Nadine
Mar 23, 2007 at 4:56 pm
I do. It’s my grandmother. When I was little, she tried so hard to teach me, but I just wanted to go outside and play. Now I quilt and imagine her beside me, showing me how to do it.
Mary Emma Allen
Mar 26, 2007 at 5:34 pm
I’m so pleased you shared your story with me. Yes, I’d say your grandmother is your inspiration, your muse.
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