Don has been spending his Saturdays attending docent training at the Wildflower Center … which I would love to do if only I didn’t have a hearing impairment.

So is was that Nancy’s recent posting of a video about the Texas Quilt Museum motivated me to (finally) make the 75 minute drive to see for myself (and really, what took me so long?)

The museum was lovely … a veritable trove of quilty eye candy. And this was the quilt that I went to first, as it had caught my eye in the video …

It was amazing … I don’t think there was a single piece of cloth that was more than one inch wide! Most were in the 1/4” to 3/4” range and the colors were fantastic.

But it was the quilt right next to it that stole my heart …

I loved how perfectly not-perfect it was. And it colored the rest of my visit as I looked to see if I could find any other hand-pieced and hand-quilted quilts. Which I did … on the “vintage quilts for sale” table. But there was only one other quilt on display that was partly made by hand …

And that’s not to say that I don’t appreciate the precision and complexity of machine-pieced and machine-quilted quilts … not to mention the artistry of their various designs … because I certainly do appreciate them. But I didn’t find any at the museum that spoke to me in quite the same gentle manner as Stripescape.

So there you have it.

It may go slow, but taking the time to piece and quilt by hand takes me to my happy place. It just takes a bit of determination, which appears to run in the family …

Good work Parker!