DO YOU KNOW A QUILT POLICE???--- Tell your story

[Betty J.]

I inadvertently became a quilt police when a woman knew commented on how nicely my feathered star quilt was pieced. I zealously nattered on and on about how careful I was to cut and stitch the units exactly the right size, about making right-triangle squares slightly larger and then trimming to the exact size to create perfect points (making a not-so subtle reference to the ill-cut patch sizes in her work), about the starching, the pressing, on and on and on I tirelessly chattered, enthusiastically scattering references to rulers, thread, quilting techniques along the way. When I climbed off my soapbox a long while later, I realized that I'd intimidated and alienated her and wished to heaven to rewind time. I tried making amends without making the situation worse but she never quite warmed to me after that, for which I deserved. Obviously, I get carried away with the love of quilting, but never again will I let my zeal for a hobby make someone feel bad.

[Bev G.]

One of my first "finished" quilts was meandered and someone made the comment that I had turned my quilt into a matress pad! Funny how many more "matress pads" I have made in the years since-good overall quilting that holds up well on kids' quilts!
Bev in Fort Wayne, IN

[Bev G.]

I've been the recipient also of the comment about "the real quilt." Hasn't convinced me one bit, however, that there is a right or wrong.

Unfortunately, most people do not give a great deal of thought that if all quilts of olden days were heirloom quilts, preserved to still be around over a hundred years later there wouldn't have bed survivors to enjoy those quilts. They would have frozen to death waiting for the quilt to be finished under quilt police rules. The "real" quilts that kept the pioneer families from freezing to death, if you lived in a frigid area like I do, were the good chunks of fabric from old coats, trousers or what ever else, maybe even pieces from another quilt, stitched together and tied. I think anyone who was thankful to have spent a warm night under one of those would laugh heartily at the definition of a "real" quilt as generally held by the quilt police. Of course, those homes needed a fire built in the morning to thaw the ice on the pail of water before they could wash. I experienced that in my younger days and the quilts that kept me warm would be totally condemned by current quilt police. I just have warm fussy feelings of getting dressed under those in the morning before I had to run across the yard to the outhouse.