Time To (Give a) Quilt

A Wintersetian expressed surprise recently when I said I don’t sell my quilts. “If I love you, it’s free,” I elaborated. “Otherwise, $10,000.” (An exaggeration.)

If you’ve been given a quilt, you’ve also been given the time (often hundreds of hours) the giver spent making it. The maker’s time and love have been stitched into every square inch. That’s why—because time is so precious—nothing says, “I love you,” quite like a quilt.

In Winterset, I walk my dog around the Madison County courthouse every day, sometimes pondering the design challenges of the quilt I’m working on, sometimes pondering heavy topics like the passage of time and the concept of giving.

In June, after returning from France, I was shocked to see a plywood circle in place of the clock face on the south side of the courthouse dome. A heavy wind, I found out, had blown the big hand, the little hand, and the clock face (about ten feet in diameter) to the ground.

In Winterset, clocks on the north, south, east, and west sides of the Madison County Courthouse dome keep time. The south side is the “front,” the date of completion set in stone. (Photo by Vicki Minor.)

In August, technicians installed new clockworks and faces. The new faces sport Roman numerals, very classy. (Photo by Vicki Minor.)

During my career, I made quilts for publication, for teaching samples, and occasionally for competition. Over the years, I gave a few away, but I had to hang on to most of them for exhibitions and trunk shows.

After my business partners and I sold Fons & Porter in 2006, I was more free to give my published quilts away and had time to make new ones for specific recipients. I gave baby quilts to expectant or new parents I loved. I gave quilts to people I admire. (Steve, Jon, Megan, Jim, Joyce, Teresa, you know who you are.) I donated quilts to fundraisers for worthy causes, and made and awarded Quilts of Valor.

I gave “Darling” to my friend Megan Barrett because she admired it, and because I admire her. She was the Iowa Quilt Museum’s first director and is among my favorite Wintersetians. (Photo courtesy of Fons & Porter.)

We quilters make quilts because we love the process—selecting the fabrics, cutting out squares, triangles, rectangles, sewing patchwork, constructing blocks, adding appliqué elements, creating rows, joining rows, adding borders, layering the top with batting and backing, quilting the layers together by hand or machine, binding the edge, adding a label.

The hours spent sewing are therapeutic for the quiltmaker. Our hands are busy. Our minds are free to roam. The quilts, and the time that goes with them, have already given us a lot, which makes giving them away easier than you might think.

I gave Triangle Pose, 55 x 68 inches, to my yoga teacher, Teresa. The project ran in Love of Quilting magazine in 2014. (Photo by Fons & Porter.)