Stick to your Strengths

a quilt block from Log Cabin Quilter

Success is achieved by development of our strengths, not by elimination of our weakness.  Marilyn Vos Savant from Brian Johnson’s Philosophers Notes.


My mother-in-law is a master quilter.  When my husband went off to college she quickly moved her sewing machine, cutting table and 5,000 boxes of fabric into his bedroom and got to work.  Now everyone in the family - and the neighborhood :) - has several quilts for their beds, wall hangings, throws, placemats, pillowcases and gift bags.  They are beautiful heirlooms that will be enjoyed for countless generations.  Now she is making quilts for great-grandchildren (my daughter’s only 14).  

One year I decided I wanted to make a Christmas quilt for my parent’s queen size bed, sounds like a nice, easy beginner project, right?  The ordeal permanently cured me of crafty ambitions - what was I thinking?  By the age of 35 you think I would be ready to accept that I am impatient, detest details, get bored easily and chronically over schedule my time...but I was in denial until I started the Christmas quilt.  Suddenly all those marvelous qualities grew into mountains standing in between me and the damn quilt (as it came to be known in our house).  However, I am nothing if not doggedly determined and I stubbornly persisted until reaching my goal and finishing the quilt, on time. 


The New York Public Library is about to launch a more appropriate quilting project for sewing flunkies like me - an online digital quilt.  Here’s how it works...beginning May 14th you can visit the NYPL digital gallery and pick out the images that you think are the most interesting, anything from the sublime to the ridiculous.  It may take a while to flip through the 740,000 images and find the ones you like, so make sure you’re comfortable.  All the images will be combined to create a crazy digital quilt.  The library website encourages home curators to “add an item that surprises you or challenges your notion of what should be in a library. You can add scraps from pop culture, like old dime novels or, literally, scraps” and “select what you would exhibit as an important symbol of our culture or our collective memory.”  Everyone with a computer is invited to add a quilt block and share their ideas.  


After a decade, I think I’m somewhat more aware of my strengths and weaknesses.  Without a doubt, I know I am a better quilt appreciator than creator.  I have great admiration for my mother-in-law and other talented quilters who continues to piece together detailed works of art.  The history of our country can be traced back through quilts made in the same way, piece by piece connected with tiny, even stitches.  Now the New York Public Library has made an online sewing bee possible so we can bind our history and culture together for the future.