How My Husband Got Me To Try Applique

When we visited family this summer I snapped some pictures of some of my first quilts.  

When I first started quilting I swore I would never applique.  Too tricky, time intensive and tedious.  When my sister-in-law was expecting her second child, my husband got it into his head that we should make a quilt with appliqued clouds and a kite in the center.  I don't know why he was so determined to have a kite quilt but I couldn't talk him out of it.  I told him I would do a pieced border but if he wanted an appliqued center he would have to do it himself.  

And He Did!  He drafted the pieces and got to work on it.  He stitched while we watched TV in the evenings and even worked on it in the airport while traveling for work.  He got some really funny looks.  Not very many men applique - much less at the airport.  :)  But he got it done in time for the baby’s birth.  

It wasn’t perfect - neither was my piecing or quilting!  - but He Did It!  And what's more, it has held together through multiple children!  I decided that if my husband, who had never picked up a needle, could applique then I could too.  And it turned out that applique was a relaxing end to the day, not a tedious chore.  Who'd have thought?

We aren't going to like every quilting technique.  I hate piecing apple cores with a passion!  But not to try things because we are afraid?  Well, that's just wrong.  Try new things!  Overcome fears!  If my husband can quilt so can you.  :)