My First Quilt

This is my first quilt. I bought a bag of scrap fabric from the local quilt/cross-stitch store at the sidewalk sales. I then cut 4 ½ inch squares. This was before rotary cutters and mats. I used a template made out of cardboard.

I had no clue about a pattern. We owned a general craft book with a section on quilting. The closest they had to a scrap quilt was a crazy quilt. My mother tried to be helpful, but it still just looks like a bunch of squares sewed together.

After the quilt top was finished, time to quilt it. That part I knew I wanted to do tie quilting. I did not have the patience to hand quilt it. (The craft book only had two options for quilting – tie or hand quilt). So now what? A friend of my mom’s had made a few quilts. She came over and taught me how to make a quilt sandwich with the batting and the backing. She lent us her quilt frame and I started tying with some white (probably acrylic) yarn.

Finally it was time to do the binding. I used Wrights double-folded quilt binding. I pinned it on and put it on my mom’s sewing machine. It puckered. I tore it out and basted it on. It puckered. (My mom and I didn’t know about walking feet). I ended up living with the puckering.

I have no idea why I decided to make a quilt. My mother sewed clothes. My 4-H instructor didn’t make quilts. Maybe I wanted to try something new that no one of my acquaintances were doing. Needless to say, this little quilt set me on my current path.