Thursday, May 28, 2009

My first Quilt

So years ago, when I was in junior high, I began this quilt top.  I would carry it with me and do some of it as I would wait for my sister to be done with her gymnastics practice, which was 4-6 times a week (she was really good).  I'd carry around a bunch of fabric in a plastic storage container and sew it by hand.  I had no idea what I was doing back then, but it was the gateway to my quilting passion, even though it took a little while after making this one to get going again.

I used to cut out the fabric using some scissors and a piece of paper cut to a specific size as a template.  It was in no way accurate looking back at it now.  To make the triangles, I'd fold the square of fabric from corner to corner and cut down the diagonal.  Again, not really accurate.  

I had no idea about fabric choices, color values, etc.  Man if I knew then what I know now...  There's a reason it's still a quilt top and not a finished quilt.  I wouldn't know how I'd even quilt it now.    

In this one, I didn't cut of the selvage and you can still see the holes.

And pretty much no corners match up... 

6 comments:

  1. Isn't it amazing what we learn over time?? I like your first quilt and you should be proud of it unmatched corners, selvages and all!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I encourage you to make this top into a quilt and suggest tie-quilting. I don't see any examples of tied quilts in extensive blog reading but I consider it a great solution for the not-perfect but sentimental quilt because it is quick, helps cover unmatched corners, is casual, and makes the top useful. For a first quilt, your color choice and balance is commendable. If you care about it enough to hold onto it finish it; someone will certainly love it along with you, I'm sure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's totally cool that you did that all by hand -- my quilting projects pre-college never made it even close to that far!

    You totally should just finish it, non-matching corners and all. As previous commenter said, tie it or just do an all-over.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's a very lovely "first" quilt, considering that we didn't have the sophisticated quilting tools we have now. I agree that you should finish it. One suggestion that was given to me not long ago and helped "free me" regarding some quilt blocks, was this...."you have nothing to lose, so start playing with it. Slice it and sew it back together in a different way, fuse something on top of it,...just play and have fun." That was a very good piece of advice!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for your sweet comment on my blog Jen. The wavy line quilting is so easy, especially if you use spray baste first. Sorry I couldn't reply privately but you have your email set at no reply.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I like this one a lot! Finish it, girl!
    -Katie

    ReplyDelete