The mellow days of autumn are a special time of year for me. From my earliest years I have loved the change from hot summer days to the cool nights and the bright colors of autumn. My birthday is in the fall (a very important event for a child), and Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, is celebrated during this season. Plus, there is the memory of one special day in my life that is always triggered by the feel of early autumn sunshine.
It was September and I was 29 years old. I was an adult, and yet until that time I had never ventured into an unknown situation entirely on my own before.
A few weeks earlier a clerk in the fabric section of a department store had told me that there was an organization in town called the Utah Quilt Guild. (From it’s name, I imagined that it must be a pretty exclusive group of women.) The clerk told me that their annual meeting was coming soon and that she had attended the year before and it had been fun. Since I was interested in quilts (she had noticed that I was buying small pieces of several different fabrics), she said I should go.
At that time I had just completed a beautiful blue polyester and cotton double wedding ring quilt. I was very proud of that quilt. With a young family (two pre-school-aged children), it had taken me a couple of years to complete it.
I must have been motivated by the success of the quilt I had made, because I called the lady whose number the store clerk had given me.
Carol Hatch, the Utah Quilt Guild President, encouraged me to attend their upcoming meeting and to “bring along your quilt” to hang in our show.
And so on a golden Saturday in September my husband and children dropped me off at the appointed place for this event called “Annual Meeting.” Under my arm I carried my double wedding ring quilt.
The place was bustling with busy quilt ladies. They were welcoming and friendly. One of them took my quilt and they hung it with the others for the one day quilting event.
The quilt show was held at National Guard Armory building. It was pretty informal. The quilts were hung from the railing of a running track that circled the second story of the gymnasium.
Once the quilts were hung, I stood in the middle of the gym floor and slowly turned, viewing the entire quilt show from that central point. The quilts were beautiful! I had never before seen so many quilts in one place at once. Each one was more lovely than the last. Then I spotted my quilt. It was a nice quilt, but it was not the best quilt. I instantly knew that there was a good deal yet for me to learn about making quilts.
In that moment I knew I wanted to know more…..lots more…… about quilting. Mini classes were offered at Annual Meeting that day and I immediately signed up for one. I was eager to get started.
I don’t remember the title of the class, nor do I remember much of what the teacher said that afternoon. I only remember one thing that she said. The teacher told us that there were professional quilt teachers. She coyly hinted at her ambition to be a national quilting instructor. “These lucky professionals,” she said, “get to travel the world teaching classes and giving lectures about quiltmaking.”
Sometimes we know things about ourselves without logically having arrived there. In a flash of inspiration I knew that I could do what that teacher was describing. “And, I thought, “I could explain things better than she has been explaining her techniques to us.”
“I could do that!” was my spontaneous reaction to her description of a professional quilt teacher. Then I quickly retracted my reaction and said to myself, “What an odd thought,” as I pushed that very brave thought to the back of my mind.
Little did I know that the seed to my future had been planted that sunny September day when I ventured out on my own for the first time accompanied by my blue double wedding ring quilt and an open mind.