My First Quilts

Thank you Bonnie Hunter for opening up an opportunity for us to show and tell our first quilts. It was fun to go outside and take pictures of my first three quilts this morning. I have a new appreciation for each one and have been reminded how I love quilts! Each quilt is a progression, a road to reaching new challenges of quiltmaking. I have a long way to go but at least I am enjoying the journey.

 The Album Quilt

This is my first finished quilt. I had played around with making various blocks but never had completed a full bed size quilt until this one. I was inspired by Georgia Bonesteel with this quilt pattern and quilting motif, a quilt that is shown in her book, "New Ideas for Lap Quilting." I just flipped through the book and many of her quilts are timeless. This quilt was made sometime in the early 90s, either 1992 or 1993. My intention was to free motion quilt the top but gave up and hand quilted this one, my one and only hand quilted quilt. I was recuperating from surgery while handquilting The Album Quilt. I was to stay off my feet and could not drive for two weeks. What a better way to spend my time - Quilting! The binding is store purchased bias tape. Never again! How much nicer quilts are when making your own. Most likely I didn't know how to make the binding or didn't have enough patience to learn at that time. It only took seeing some beautiful quilts that look more appealing with binding that matched, coordinated or enhanced the quilt.

Crossroads

Crossroads was the second quilt top to be pieced but was not completed until 2006. I had debated as to whether to junk it or complete it since the colors no longer inspired me being from the early 1990s. Remember all those mauve and blues? As you can see I decided to complete it and fully machine quilted it with the Baptist Fan quilt motif. The quilt pattern came from Leslie Linsley's book "The Weekend Quilt", another quilting book on my shelf.  It is amazing how a quilt can come alive after it has been quilted. Notice the binding? Yes, it is handmade by me and sure makes the quilt look nice. It is my favorite nap quilt. It has a couple faint stains. Hmmm. I need to see if I can get them out.

Nine Block on Point 

I saw a picture of a plaid look like quilt in a quilting magazine in the early 90s. It was on an elegant four poster bed and decided I wanted to have one just like it. The nine blocks are 3 inch blocks and are made from fabric that was in my stash for making Raggedy Anns and Andys and unbleached muslin, a venture for raising income while single parenting. Since I was no longer making the dolls I needed to use up this fabric. This definitely is a scrappy quilt. I didn't even know the term "scrappy quilt" when I made it.

It is king size and took about 12 years to complete since I had decided to go back to college and get my accounting degree, which took about 6 years while working fulltime. Thus, there was not much time for making quilts. I had intended to grid quilt but as you can see it is parallel quilting using a walking foot on my domestic sewing machine. The quilt was so heavy that quilting it was hard on the neck and shoulders.




What Inspired Me to Quilt Again

My youngest son called one day and requested that I make a quilt from his ties. I followed no pattern. Many of the various blocks are 3-dimensional. The background fabric is washable faux suede. Notice the kittens, Mercedes and Beamer, the names of my son's cats, stray cats that he found at the dealership, have ties that are cut-off from the ends of ties.

Then I found the world of quilting on the internet. First was the Eons Quilters Passion Group that I moderate at http://www.eons.com/groups/group/quilters-passion, a group of folks passionate about quilting and a place where friendships have been made, and then there was finding quilters such as Bonnie Hunter. I found her website and was inspired to make a scrappy Double Irish Chain as she has shown or her website. This was the a quilt top I made after making a quilt for my oldest son and then one for my husband. It is on my UFO list of quilts to finish.  Thank you Bonnie! 

Miss Cassie Says Hello

Miss Cassie was at the groomers yesterday. A day after the groomers is a day to sleep in her opinion. Getting beautiful is hard and tiring work. She likes the Wyoming Star Quilt that I made. It is free motion quilted with some grid quilting. This is the quilt that I made for my hubby. Cassie says she is prettier than the quilt!