The Guest Room Quilt

I grew up sitting at a sewing machine. Barbie doll clothes and personal clothing was my specialty. The first quilting attempt was while waiting for Athena's arrival. Over the next 20 years I made the occasional quilt, mostly squares and usually tied. About 15 years ago I got serious about it and took a few classes. I quickly learned that the art of quilting is much more than sewing squares together and fastening them with square knots. Constructing a half-square triangle involved using math skills and precise 1/4 inch seams. Pressing correctly could make or break whether or not your block went together effortlessly or ended up lumpy. For twelve years I completed countless quilts and gave them away.

My first "real" quilt is still on the bed in our guest room. It is certainly not my best work. Seams don't always match, the hand quilted stitches are much longer than desired and there is one block that is assembled incorrectly. Over the years my skills improved and a few years ago I even had the guts to have a few appraised. These are the "heirloom" quilts that will go to my grandchildren some day in the future.

The same evolution of skills has taken place in my photography. Today I had the unpleasant experience of seeing an image that I took over two years ago. Oh my, it was awful. Well, the image itself was not particularly awful but the post-processing was mind numbingly hideous. As soon as I got home I searched through my archives where (luckily) the original files were found. Reprocessing has been done. New prints will be made tomorrow and hopefully hung in that hallway. The old 8x10 will be brought here to my lair where it will hang in front of my monitor as a reminder that there is so much more to be learned.

The frightening part of this experience is knowing that in 2012 I will most likely look at images from 2010 and want do-overs on every single one of them. Again. Ugh.

01-15-10 Note: Replacement prints were made today and are now hanging in place of the old ones. I feel sooo much better about them. Remind me in two years to do another comparison. On second thought, don't.

$.76