My First Quilt

Today we are traveling almost exactly eight years into the past. Eight years ago yesterday I finished my very first quilt!

You'd think I would have gone outside and taken a picture, but it was my first quilt photography experience too. Plus my current quilt-holders were a little too small to be helpful (one wasn't even born yet!).

Some thoughts. I borrowed my mom's circa-1980 Kenmore sewing machine to make some boppy covers when I was pregnant with my second child because I didn't like any of the ones they had in-store (they turned out great, if you are wondering!). Then my mom came to visit and took the sewing machine home with her. I missed it so much I ended up buying my own machine two weeks later!

I had always been interested in quilts, and this was the first time that I had dedicated access to a machine to try it out. My mother-in-law is a quilter and she gave me this pattern (which I no longer have) from one of her quilt magazines. She told me it was strip piecing and super easy. I had no idea what strip piecing was, but she was great about answering the phone every single time I called her with a question. Some fun challenges:

I did have a cutting mat and rotary cutter, but the mat was only 12"x18" and my ruler was 3"x18".
I ended up fussy cutting all those pink elephants (I also didn't know what fussy cutting was, I just knew I wanted all of my squares to have a full elephant, not a partial one).
I was using a mini iron and mini ironing board.

I had this long-arm quilted and the quilter was quite eccentric - it took over an hour when I dropped the quilt off because she insisted on giving me a detailed tour of her quilting studio. And over an hour to pick it up because she wanted to show me all the other quilts she had quilted. I had no idea what the correct etiquette was so I just sat there and let her talk and talk as I attempted to keep my 3-year-old from destroying her studio (both times!).

And then, after all that, this was gifted to a friend for her baby. Out in the wild, and my friend mentioned recently that they still use it, so it is well-loved!

Are you interesting in learning how to quilt? The Fat Quarter Shop is launching The Ultimate Beginner Quilt Along this week with lots of help to make your first quilt a success! The pattern is a sampler quilt, which is a great way to start - every block is different so you don't have to worry about all of them looking the same. If you make a mistake no one will ever know! It's lap-sized, so you can throw it on your couch and enjoy your new creation every time you sit there, at least until one of your children claims it and drags it off to their room (that's what happens with all of my quilts!). Here is their sample image:

And here's the stack of Alison Glass Holiday fabric that I'll be using to make mine. It's only a fat eighth bundle so I might have to do a little creative cutting, but I'm excited to cut into it!