Born to Quilt

Ten years ago, I was sitting home learning programming with the intention of getting a job in a software company. I even had an interview and got the job. Finally I refused the offer. Still, I continued learning web programming, waiting for something and not knowing what....

All her life, my mother has been knitting the most beautiful things for her four daughters. And we all learned to knit and enjoyed it.
Suddenly, at that time, I gave up to the idea of taking a new job and wanted to make a living from knitting. I did not like the yarns from our shops and I asked to my sister Oana to look for yarns on Internet.

One day Oana told me :”Go to an Internet café (I did not have Internet access from home) and search on Google the word quilt”. She explained me that quilt is something decorative made out of small pieces of fabric.

It was a cold winter, I remember that Oana was so excited about it so that I took the bus to the nearest Internet café - one hour away. If I had been lazy, I would have lost the chance of my life.
I googled the word “quilt” and the magic started to happen…

I remember like it was yesterday that the first website I opened was the one of the famous American artist Jinny Beyer. Her logo quilt amazed me (if you don't know it, go to Jinny's website to see it). It was the most beautiful thing I have seen in my entire life! The colors and shapes revealed a world that I have never imagined it could exist. In that moment I fell in love with quilting.

I desperately searched for tools and fabrics for quilting in our shops, but I could not find any. Very disappointed, I told to myself “So much about quilting !”. Still, I kept looking on the Internet. And so I became addicted to quilting.

For the next few months, I often visited that Internet café, and I could barely leave the computer ... then I got Internet access from home and nothing stopped me from quilting.
At that time I did not know anyone in Romania who made quilts so I had to learn all by myself.

Many things that for most of you mean nothing, for me were big victories:
- the first quilting book I bought;
- the day I understood what is the difference between “batting-backing-binding-basting”(I am not an English native speaker);
- the day I finally figured out what “stitch in the ditch” means;
- the day I brought the sewing machine with free motion quilting foot;
- the day I managed to sew with free motion !
- the first fabric order in a quilt shop in USA;
At that time there were no blogs with tons of tutorials, and I did a hard work to learn everything. But finally I managed to make quilts !

After three years of learning and making quilts I created my website RomanianQuiltStudio (you see, I did not learn web programming for nothing). And for the next few years I shared what I learned with a few Romanian people. I made even a few Romanian quilting friends.
But my quilting life changed when I discovered and fell in love with shadow trapunto. I started to write my blog in English, I made new friends…

Ten years after the beginning of this story, I enjoy every minute of my life, because all I do is connected with quilting. I work all day long, but it is like a play for me, not work. I quilt even in my dreams-really !

I had a dream and the dream came true; I had two quilts in the 2008 Houston judged show; you don’t know what this meant to me. Try to imagine this: a shop beautifully decorated for Christmas and filled with the most amazing toys (that is Houston quilt festival). And a poor child (that is me, very poor because of the lack of quilting tradition in my country) who has been looking through the windows to all the wonders in the shop. But in 2008 the child managed to enter the shop and enjoyed all the wonders…

I was so lucky and I found not only the biggest love of my life-quilting, but I found my biggest love in quilting: shadow trapunto; of course I like many quilting techniques, but no one is like shadow trapunto.
I started making patterns and I am so glad that there are quilters who trust me and buy them - thank you for your support!

Of course, my guardian angel is my husband.. He never told me: “Stop playing and get a real job!”. I make sacrifices in order to quilt, and he makes sacrifices for me.
My only concern is that I do not speak English so well. I spend a lot of time writing in English on this blog. Many times I would like to share with you more things but unfortunately there is not enough time.

Well, I don’t know where I will be in 10 years. I just want to be healthy and make quilts…
And now, here it is:

"Stained Glass Star", 48"x48"

This is not the Jinny Beyer logo-quilt, it is my quilt ! I made it using a kit from Jinny (not only fabrics and patterns, but all those diamonds and squares were already cut) ! I will tell you more about this quilt in a future post.

I always wanted to have it in order to remind me of that first day of my quilting life.
I am so touched when I look at this quilt. But I don’t see only that first day, it seams like it keeps my first ten years of quilting in it!

Thank you Jinny!
Thank you all who read my blog ! You all help me progress!

Edited
February 2012 - I wrote a book!

October 2012- My quilt "A World of Many Colors" won an Honorable Mention at the Houston Judged Show of the International Quilt Association, "A World of Beauty".