The joy of quilting

The Professor and I are trying to keep our Christmas gift-giving in check, both because of my job status and because, well, the stress of giant presents just isn't what the holidays are about. Not that we've ever been the "over-the-top" kind of holiday fools, but we've been known to go a little nutty hunting down items for family and friends. 

So, with the Professor's wonderful skills as a seamstress and my ample free time, we decided this year we'd try to make a fair amount of our gifts. 

The Professor has been knitting items for grandparents and friends. She's sewn together bags and headbands. 

And I, well . . .

I have begun to quilt.

That is a sentence I never would have imagined I'd utter.

Yes, for our parents, we opted to make matching quilted wall hangings of this Christmas tree pattern that the Professor found online somewhere. I, admittedly, cannot work a sewing machine all that well, so I have been in charge of cutting out pieces of fabric. I made sure to do most of this while football was on television, if only to ensure my manhood (though, if you ask me, cutting out fabric while watching burley men in tight outfits jump on top of each other could go either way. Not to mention the high heels I was wearing at the time . . .).

Anyway, I cut out pieces and the Professor sewed them together. I then took the sewn pieces and ironed their seams flat so that they could be connected to more pieces. We actually were a great team, almost a machine, in fact. I'd press pieces, deliver them to the sewing room, pick up the next round, and so on.

Unfortunately, the one bump we came across was learning that, after I cut everything out, I must have been shaving the pattern of a few shapes ever so slightly while going through the fabric (I was wondering about all those thin whiskers of paper!). But, the Professor, crafty as she is, was able to improvise a bit, cutting everything down to be uniform.

As everything came together, I admit that I felt pretty proud for helping make these little things.

I am Ben, and I have quilted.