Quilting For Relaxation and Creativity

I’ve been a quilter for quite a few years and have enjoyed making various quilts as gifts or for my own enjoyment. At one time, because of a busy schedule, I used to mostly quilt at ‘all night’ quilting parties hosted by my quilting buddies. Then I had eye surgery to correct a congenital eye condition followed by several months of blindness, retinal infections, and glaucoma like symptoms. I thought my quilting days were over.

I still managed to do some sewing, but it was a frustration because I simply could not thread my own machine. I had to have someone else do it for me and it became a chore – not the relaxing activity it was meant to be.

Then I got a wonderful new machine for Christmas in 2016 that threads itself. Hooray! I did a bit of costume sewing when I first got it but then a year of heart troubles and hospitals got in the way and I did very little sewing.

I got the machine out this January and decided I was going to use up all the old fabric scraps I had. Here is the result:

 I ended up making not one, but THREE queen sized tops out of those scraps! (I guess I was hoarding fabric…) Anyway, it was a fun diversion and now I need to get the actual batting and backing applied. Perhaps I will have some time for this during my lovely two weeks of spring break from school.

What creative outlets do you enjoy?