I used to spend a huge amount of my time designing and coding websites. I found that when my creative web design company, Aeolidia, grew enough that I was in a management role and could no longer do client work myself, I needed a replacement creative activity. Today I’m taking a break from my usual all-business posts here to show you something just for fun.

My son was almost two years old, and I found some vintage jungle-themed sheets at the thrift store and thought I’d see if I could make a quilt out of them. Well, I dusted off my old Home Ec. sewing skills and I made him a quilt in time for his second birthday.

I am a bit of a crafting dilettante, I must confess. I have dabbled in knitting, crocheting, doll-making, painting, jewelry-making, embroidery, and the list goes on. Once I figure out the basics of how to do something, I tend to lose interest, and rarely have many completed projects to show for my efforts. However, the quilting was another story, for some reason!

Since that first jungle quilt a few years ago, I’ve made eight quilts, and while working on them, I noticed that the process of making a quilt shares many similarities with designing a website. I think that’s why it keeps my interested, and why I’ve stuck with it.

I’m going to show photos of a recent quilt that I made for my son, as a fun example of why I find making quilts a good creative replacement activity. Calvin has been pretty obsessed with space for the last year, so we dreamed up the Denim Solar System quilt.

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