Quilting - My American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/7/quitting

Quilting

Not going to lie, when I first saw this episode, I was thrilled that it was about quilting, because I actually had a weird story from my family and growing up me, that could work with quilting. But then I started to listen to the stories, and got a bit sad, because instead of talking about quilting, and how I know how to make, sew together, stitch, back, tie and do everything else in the world of quilting, it was in fact about quitting.

Now you might think that it'd be weird that they'd have a radio show all about quilting, but come on, one of the first ones that they produced was about poultry, so I was open to it being about blankets. The only hard part about it being changed to being about quitting is the weird fact that I haven't really quit anything before. 

They talked about quitting jobs - all of my jobs I've ever stopped going to because I moved, could no longer work there (grounds crew at college) or got fired from. I've never actually turned in my two weeks notice and quit.  Relationships I've never quit on because I've only really had one relationship. Books, I don't quit on, I finish them cover to cover. Movies, plays, friendships, contracts, and just about anything that I can think of, and I haven't quit it. I've let things decay in the background from lack of attention, but I've never been in the middle of something and quit it. 

The quilt that I was originally going to write about, is actually pretty true to my history of quitting. Long story (that hopefully will come around at a later episode that is actually about quilting) but around my 16th birthday, I had to block, back, and ultimately hand quilt an entire queen size quilt. It's a weird story, but I did it. I hunted for fabric, blocked them together, sewed the entire quilt together, backed it, put it in frames and then started in on quilting. I had help from my mom, but I did my part and didn't quit. Finally when it came down to binding the edges my mom stepped up and said that she'd do it, and that's where my quilt has been sitting for over a decade now. Completely finished except for the last step because I walked away and didn't want to finish it. I didn't quit mid way, I didn't try to stop, I did the work, have the quilt, but it's not finished.

That pretty much summarizes all of the things I quit. I did them right, and then something else came up and just took me away from them. Tennis got replaced by school. Writing one story would slowly get replaced by doing something else, and the list goes on. You could try to say that I quit some things by finishing them, like how I quit college because I no longer go to college, but I finished that, there's nothing more for me to do there as a student. I wish I had a good story here about something that I quit, a hobby, a friendship, or even a job, but there really isn't anything in my life, besides bad habits, that I can say that I really quit. Sorry for the short post, but I just don't have anything about quitting, quilting on the other hand, that could get interesting.

Fun side note, in the back of my mind, I really do want to make my own quilt again. I don't know why, but to do a simple block pattern, nothing too fancy, and just make a big, king size, super fluffy patchwork quilt. I doubt I ever will just because of time, but part of me really wants to knock something out like this one more time just to prove to myself that I can still do it. Maybe that could be on the topic of me quitting, sometimes I quit before I even start things. I have a lot to do on 'to do' lists, but rarely do I actually start any of them for my own personal reasons.