My First Quilt

Recently, a friend asked me about my first quilt, and wow, that brought back a lot of memories! Even though it wasn’t all that long ago when I made it, a lot has changed since then. Our discussion made me think it might be fun to write a blog post about my first quilt and show some photos. Fun…and maybe embarrassing too, but I figured, why not.

If you’ve read my ‘About’ section, you’re familiar with how quilting became part of my life. In a nutshell, nearly four years ago I was making box bags for my daughter’s knitting projects, and one tutorial in particular made reference to ‘getting out your quilter’s ruler.’ After figuring out what a quilter’s ruler actually was, I thought I’d try my hand at making a quilt. It certainly seemed like something I’d enjoy as a hobby. Like most quilters, after one I was hooked, and I haven’t stopped since.

So here it is. My first quilt.

In all honesty, it really didn’t come out too bad!

Since I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, I chose a pattern from a Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial, (I love those, btw) called The Snowballed Pinwheel Quilt. If you’re new to quilting, I do not recommend this for a beginner (it’s definitely for the more advanced quilter). 🙂  I’d love to make this quilt again now that I know what to expect. Nonetheless, back then I was excited and ready to go. I didn’t even know enough to consider whether this was a beginner-friendly pattern or not.

Like all new quilters, I set out to JoAnn Fabrics and bought a small fat quarter bundle and more background, backing and binding fabric than needed. After all my measuring and cutting, it was time for actual sewing. I should mention here at that time, I had a Kenmore (circa 1979) sewing machine. It’s a great workhorse of a sewing machine, but again, from the late 70’s…so there’s no 1/4″ foot, ability to drop feed dogs or anything else ‘quilty’ about it. I’m not sure exactly what I did for my quarter inch accuracy, but if my memory serves me correctly, I put down painter’s tape as a guide.

All seemed to go well until it was time to sew my pieces together. Since I was pretty clueless regarding trimming blocks, I do remember a few tears and plenty of frustration when trying to line up everything, but hey, that didn’t stop me and eventually I got it together!

By the time I had the top pieced, I had purchased a small Brother Project Runway sewing machine. At that time I was eager to perfect my free motion quilting (no longer an aspiration of mine) so I lowered my feed dogs and tried out ‘meandering’. I remember having some fun with that, but shortly thereafter I had lost interest in perfecting FMQ,  I simply did not want to practice to get good at it, and I’m more of a ‘piecer’ than a ‘quilter.’

So here she is in all her glory! I chose to make something small, it measures approximately 31″ x 31″ square.

Another MSQC tutorial instructed me on how to get nicely mitered corners with binding!

OK, so overall, not too terrible for a newbie. I haven’t gotten this out of my storage chest in forever; it was kind of fun taking a look at it again. Certainly far from perfect but it does hold a bit of sentimentality for me, I doubt I ever get rid of it.

About a year ago I replaced my Brother machine with a Janome Skyline S7. Oh wow, do I love that machine. I gave my Brother to my daughter and my Kenmore is boxed up and stored in the garage. I wish I had a photo to show, it’s a pretty neat machine and definitely has that vintage vibe!

So that’s my trip down memory lane…oh so many quilts ago!