Is there anything more fun than peeking into another quilter's sewing room? The Quilter Life is a collection of soft pastel animals who live exactly the way we do, surrounded by fabric, thread and one more project than is strictly reasonable. They were kind enough to open their doors, so let's take the tour.
The waterfront studios
The ocean has the best real estate, and the residents know it. A red-haired mermaid swims through a flurry of floating fabric pieces, sorting as she goes. A narwhal has hung a little patchwork banner right off the end of her tusk, which is the most practical design wall we have ever seen. A clam keeps her quilt folded inside her shell like the pearl it is, and a sea turtle has pieced her whole shell in patchwork, one tidy block at a time. The octopus, naturally, has fabric pinned to a line with every one of her eight arms busy, while a seal sits up on a comfy stack of folded fabric with her needle going, and another lounges on rolling waves of cloth as if they were a feather bed. A whale swims by with a rolled heirloom quilt tied on her back for safekeeping.
Cottages in the woods and meadow
Inland, the studios get cozier. A moose sits at a vintage sewing machine surrounded by finished quilts, and a stag works at a long quilting frame with the patience of a creature who has all winter. Another deer simply wears his quilt, draped over his back like a cape. The hedgehog has solved the eternal problem of where to put the pins by wearing every one of them, a tiny rainbow of pin heads bristling along her back. A raccoon naps in a mountain of scraps and calls it treasure, an owl supervises the whole woods from the top of an old treadle machine, and a ladybug sits on her cushion with her needle, piecing tiny hearts.
The garden rooms
Out where the flowers grow, a snail leaves a trail of neat stitches wherever she goes, a mint green caterpillar has wrapped herself snug in scraps, and a butterfly has already emerged in wings that look pieced from pastel patchwork. A dragonfly with a thread ribbon tied around her like a sash flits between spools, and a smiling starfish keeps five embroidery hoops going, one for each arm. Out on the savanna, a zebra sews stripes to match her own at sunset, and back at the ranch a horse with a flowing mane sits at her machine, a quilt pooling in her lap.
Which studio would she move into?
Every quilter we know would pick a different room on this tour. One friend is SO the raccoon in the scrap pile, another is the owl who notices everything, and somebody in your guild is absolutely the starfish with five projects on the go. Pick her animal, and don't be surprised if she starts eyeing the end of a broom handle for a design wall of her own. The narwhal would be flattered.
Written by Judy. Thanks for reading.
