My First Quilt

I thought it might be fun to show my first quilt.

Isn't there an old saying, something about "the journey of a lifetime starts with a single step", or something like that?  It's true for so many things.  It was certainly true about my quilting journey.

Unlike most quilters, I do not have a sewing background.  I dabbled a little at summer camp when I was very young,, and then in Home Ec. class--you remember learning to make tuna noodle casserole and a wrap-around skirt, don't you?  (Or maybe you chose to make the apron.).  At any rate, I took a Basic Machine Quilting class at a local quilt shop on a whim in 1994, just because it sounded like fun.  It was summer and I had the time to try something new.

The pattern was Single Irish Chain, a classic pattern.  You just alternate 9 patch blocks with solid blocks and the cool pattern emerges.  It was an adventure to pick out the fabrics, the ruler and the rotary cutter.  It was 3 classes spread out over 3 weeks, with "homework" in between.  We learned how to fold the fabric, how to use the rotary cutter and ruler, how to chain piece, iron the blocks, put the blocks together, baste and quilt.

Some lessons were harder than others for a non-sewer such as myself.  Seam allowance and accurate piecing, for example.

The instructor had doubts about my choice of bright inner border fabric, saying she wasn't sure how well it would go with my rather conservative choices for the main body of the quilt.  I would choose that fabric again in a heartbeat.  We learned to quilt with invisible thread, something I do now only occasionally.  Wouldn't this quilt have looked great quilted in pink thread, or light blue?

Something that's come a LONG way in the last 15 years or so:  batting!  I think it's some form of Mountain Mist in this one-- it's a little bit thick, and a little stiff and bunchy.  

And some lessons stay with you forever.  Don't forget to label your quilt.