The first quilt I ever made was in 1976. My mother had got interested in quilting and started piecing a top. I thought that looked like fun!
I checked some quilt books out of the library and came across a photo of a quilt with this "Around the World" design. There were no instructions in the book but I could see it was made with equal sized squares and would be pretty simple.
I cut fabric from old shirts and laundry bags ( that were supposed to be returned to the laundry service where my husband worked).
I sewed the pieces together on a treadle machine that was my grandmothers, and used a sheet for the backing - wrapped around for borders.
Then I hand quilted it on a wooden frame my mother had ordered from Sears.
It was a hot mess! I still have it but it's rotten. I later zigzag stitched around all the squares to hold it together. Only used as a door draft blocker sometimes now,
I didn't make another quilt for 25 years!
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About the only thing I finished in all that time was this crocheted baby afghan for Darby in 1994.
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In 2001 I took a class at the old Behr Fabric store in Louisville on "Cathedral Window Quilts".
From that I made this bleh looking baby quilt for baby Ethan.
It was fun to make though. I remember that's the summer I started sewing out on the screen porch.
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Still not knowing much about what I was doing, I saw a photo of a sampler quilt on the internet that I really liked. I started searching for patterns for each block online, or just figuring out the simple ones. By summer of 2003 I had this quilt ready for baby Sydnee.
I had no idea how to quilt it. I ended up just stitching it on my machine...with a regular presser foot. It turned out really puckery.
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| same quilt - different lighting |
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When my mother learned that I was trying to get started in quilt making...she asked if I'd like to take the quilt top she made in 1976 and quilt it. Well yes!
She had given up on finishing it back then - with kids, a husband, a dog and a house all needing her attention.
So I brought it home along with the quilt frame she had bought.
My mother made this entirely of fabrics from our old clothing...shirts,night gowns, skirts and dresses and possibly even boxer shorts. she even used some small scraps to make some string blocks.
That's a nice layout! I added borders.
I used muslin for the backing and hand quilted it and returned it to her.
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Next, I saw an adorable quilt in the Cracker Barrel store. It had dimensional teddy bears sewn on the blocks. I had to give that a try!
I bought some furry fabric and hand sewed some half bears using an old Teddy bear we had around the house as a model. I sewed them onto blocks stuffing them with fiberfill before the last stitches were in place. I just made up that crazy looking border.
This was for baby Zachary in 2004. I'd like to see this again to see if it looked okay or not, but I'd be too embarrassed to ask about it.
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Next, I came across an organization called "Quilts for Kids". They provided quilts for children who were hospitalized and they asked for volunteers to sew them in their homes.
At that time they would mail the fabric and to the quilter, who would cut it, sew it, add batting and quilt and bind it...then mail it back. They had certain patterns to use.
Here is the one I did.
These had to be machine quilted due to being washed in a hospital industrial washer.
So I tried again with slightly better results than previously.
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I might have these out of order. This quilt that I made for baby Micah, in 2004, is one that I really liked. It was simple and colorful and I felt like my skills were improving. I didn't have a pattern but I followed some directions for making pinwheels and just cut the sashing to fit them. Hand quilted.
It is lumpy looking because I bought a thick poofy batting to use.
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Later in 2004, I used a pattern for this quilt for baby Lindsay. It was from the first quilt book I bought, "Best Loved Quilt Patterns".
The pattern was for a full sized quilt so I had to figure out where to stop to make a small quilt. I can see a couple of things I should have done differently but I liked this quilt and I learned to do partial seams while making it.
I like the mixed pinks instead of using the same fabric througout,
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