I am a quilter

Jan 3, 2017 by tlmiller

I am a quilter.

For the longest time, I was unable to say those words.  I’d qualify my craft with words like “beginner,” or “novice” or “just learning.”  I know that at any one time all of us are looking over the edge at something new – we are beginning an experiment with color, or taking a novice’s approach to a new technique, or learning a skill from another quilter.  Yet, despite quilting for many years, I didn’t feel worthy of identifying myself as a quilter without serious qualifying statements about my skill level.   Until one day when I stopped at my local Starbucks before work.

As I stood in line, waiting for the barista to brew my personal addiction, a venti, soy, no water, extra hot, Chai with cinnamon powder on top,  a woman in line behind me tapped my shoulder.

“Excuse me,” she said, looking apologetic,  “but you have what looks like string stuck to your tights.”  She pointed downward to the back of my leg.

I turned my leg and looked in the general direction of where she was pointing.  Sure enough, there was a long piece of the most beautiful lime green tucked up against the back of my knee, clinging to my black tights.  I smiled.

“Thread,” I said.

She looked at me blankly.  Apparently, I wasn’t the only one missing their morning caffeine fix.  I expanded further.

“It’s not string,” I said, pointing to the back of my knee.  “It’s thread.”

We both took a moment to appraise the back of my knee.

And, as if it explained everything there was to know about the bright green thread tucked against the back of my knee, and the universe we both found ourselves occupying at that given moment in time, which to my way of thinking it most surely did, I added, “I am a quilter.”

Now, I could’ve gone into a long winded explanation as to how that particular thread managed to wind up on the back side of my knee.  I could have explained that I often get dressed in my quilt studio, or that my most recent quilt was being quilted with that particular color.  But, seriously who needs all the gory details?

I play with fabric and  thread.  Enough said.

I am a quilter.

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