my first quilt

Camille and Carrie are having a parade of quilts. Since I've enjoyed seeing so many first quilts, I thought I would join in the fun.

My first quilt was made 9 summers ago. I was pregnant with my first child and I wanted to make a baby quilt for him. Thankfully, a dear friend helped me each step of the way, because I had NO clue about quilting, but I really wanted to learn. I remember having the hardest time rotary cutting. (I was scared to death!) And I also remember having a very hard time sewing a straight quarter inch seam. (That eventually got easier.)

I didn't quilt or bind it. The layers were sewn together, then flipped. It's tied with perle cotton. It measures about 40" square. My son still loves it and after 9 years, it's still in one piece. :)

One of my most recent finishes is the oh cherry oh quilt. (more here.) I quilted this one so heavily that it makes up for the lack of quilting in my first (five) quilts. :)

I've learned so much since my first quilt. A good sewing machine really makes a difference. Quilting is hard at first, the learning curve is steep, but once you get over the hump it's so worth it. Practice really does help. Simple patterns are good. And a fabric addiction is hard to kick.

After making my first quilt, I recall thinking "I can't believe I just made a quilt!" I still get a thrill when finishing each one. It doesn't get old, even after one hundred and some odd times.

grid quilting mini tutorial

I love stippling, there's no doubt about it. But there is life beyond stippling. (There's even a flickr group to prove it. hee hee) I like grid quilting a lot. It's fun, especially on a small piece. I thought I would share a quick tutorial on how I do it...

First, I made a quilt sandwich, using spray adhesive to baste the layers together.


Place a piece of painters tape (or masking tape) on your quilt top on the diagonal. Just eyeball it...no measuring required. The tape shown here is 1" wide. You can use any tape width you would like. On a larger piece, like a baby quilt, 2" wide tape is ideal.



Sew on either side of the tape using a walking foot....



Remove the tape....



Move the tape to the outside of the quilting line. I added another line of tape to help speed up the process. Quilt on the outside of each line of tape. Repeat as many times as necessary. You can re-use the tape between 5-10 times.



Once you are done quilting in one direction, start the process for the other direction. Again, no measuring is required...just eyeball it. Repeat the process as many times as necessary.



And that's it. Easy, right?



I made this little piece for the placemat swap on flickr. (you can see all the wonderful goodies i received in the swap here. jennie is an awesome swap partner!)

I think I might have found a new obsession in maverick stars. They are so much fun!!!