A virtual quilt in a virtual world.

Quilting… The Virtual Becomes Real

Quilt Designs used in Second Life
Quilt Designs used in Second Life

I love quilting. Well, really, I’m pretty fond of anything to do with fiber. But for the last couple of years, quilting has really captured my interest.

After a while, virtual just isn’t good enough any more.

Quilt Design

Doll quilt for Second Life
The first quilt I ever designed, for a doll bed in Second Life

I design content in Second Life® as Robin Sojourner. Way back in the Long Ago (that’s Nearly Forever in SL™ time, and about 8 years in Real Time) I decided I wanted to make a doll cradle. Which meant it needed a quilt. Rummaging around on the web yielded several quilt design programs. Eventually I settled on Electric Quilt, as it was by far the most versatile I found (even though it only runs on a PC, not a Mac.) I had a great time learning EQ (as we call it) and started to design quilts. Lots of quilts.

Virtual just isn’t good enough any more

Pulsar Quilt Piecing Design
Pulsar Quilt designed in Electric Quilt.

But an odd thing happened. The more I designed quilts, and did all the work to make them into “real” quilts that I could use in SL, the less that satisfied me. They were beautiful, and colorful, but I couldn’t hold them! I couldn’t cuddle under them, and they didn’t keep me warm on cold nights. In short, they simply weren’t good enough. So I took my rotary cutter in hand, pulled some scraps from my stash, and started piecing. Real quilts. Quilts with substance. Touchable, tactile, warm quilts. It’s much more difficult and time-consuming to make real quilts. But it’s so much more satisfying.

I love quilts.

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