I collect quilts. I sew them, and buy them on ebay. There are eight double wedding rings draped all over our house. If you are not familiar with that pattern, it is a jigsaw puzzle of colored arcs that fit together with two shapes of muslin pieces, one like a mouth about to kiss, and another like flying squirrels hurling through the
air.
One of the attributes that increases the value of a quilt is how small the pieces are. The double wedding ring on my twins' bed has a dozen wedges half an inch wide by two inches tall in each of the 142 arcs. That's 1704 pieces the size of my toe. It is not logical if you are into time saving strategies. Collect twenty different fabrics, slice them up and sew them back together. Who does that?
Me.
Another
characteristic to pay attention to is the length of the quilting stitches. These are what coax the sandwich consisting of a top, backing and the batting inside to cling together over a lifetime. Smaller stitches are not only more beautiful, they are stronger. I can manage to get eight stitches per inch but a master can squeeze in twice that. Hand quilting a queen sized Star of Bethlehem takes longer than piecing the entire quilt top. This is in contrast to the effort of basting the sandwich in
preparation for quilting. You can finish that in an afternoon. Basting stitches are large and loose, and their job is temporary.
If you want to create an heirloom quilt, there are no shortcuts. You will need to clock a hundred hours over half a year. It is impossible to crank one out without an investment of time.
An heirloom marriage is made of small pieces too: a wink across the table, an appreciative text message, a
salad brought to your honey at lunch, a sharp comment swallowed. These little gestures are what coax the three of you... husband, wife, and your commitment inside... to cling together over a lifetime. Hundreds of toe sized pieces, and thousands of stitches holding a relationship together over the decades are more resilient than a few flashy big ones.
If you want to create an heirloom marriage there are no short cuts. You will need to clock in
thirty thousand hours over half a century. It is impossible to crank one out without an investment of time.
