Bonnie over at Quiltville, is encouraging us to all show our first quilts. I had trouble defining which quilt is my first quilt. I’ll let you decide.
This quilt, was made with crazy quilt blocks and pre printed fabric squares. I made it for Kelli when she was 2-she’s 24 now. My mom machine quilted it enough to hold it all together. At that point in my life I LOVED embroidery so I hand embroidered along all of seams of the crazy quilt blocks.
In the early summer of 1990, I went home to visit my parents, we had three kids under three years old and I was a stay at home mom with a husband who was working LONG hours. When I got to my parents, mom suggested that she watch the children and I go do her errands by myself. She new I was stressed and needed a break from the kids. While I was out shopping I bought a quilt magazine. In the days to come, I spent HOURS paging through the magazine dreaming of the quilts I wanted to make. My mom died that same year in early August. As a type of therapy, I started making one of the quilts in the magazine….Here is that quilt top. I have never quilted it.
I put quilting aside and had two more children. When our youngest was one, I took a quilting class for beginners. We were supposed to bring something we had sewn. I brought my quilt top. The instructor asked me why I was in class….after all if I had sewn a curved seam Druckard’s Path quilt, I certainly didn’t need a beginning quilt class. I laughed. I didn’t even know how to use a rotary cutter. I needed a beginner class. I stayed in the class and made this heart wall hanging.
To this day when I see a curved seam quilt like the Drunkard’s Path, I shy away and think it’s too hard. Isn’t it amazing what we can accomplish when we don’t feel intimidated? When I made those curve seam blocks all those years ago, I just looked at it as sewing curved seams in clothing. I had sewn a lot of clothing and wasn’t intimidated a bit. To this day, I still haven’t sewn another curved seam quilt. I keep thinking curved seams are too hard…maybe I should rectify that.
So which is my first quilt, I am not sure….Kelli’s clown quilt, the curved seam Drunkard’s Path or the heart quilt. Check out other first quilts on Bonnie’s blog. Also, I have a giveaway happening…you can check it out here.
I doubt you still have the first quilt I ever made…that was a long time ago. :)
Wow 3 under 3 and then 2 more! It’s amazing you had time to do anything. Your Mum sounds like she was very wise I’m sure you needed a break from the kids too. That,s one of the reasons I started to quilt, and I only had 2 boys.
Wow I am so impressed with all three quilts. The first ” quilting” I did was really just doing a front and a back, with like squares on the front! LOL I gave it to my girlfriend for her son and then she used it for the dog!
I think the one you made after your mom’s passing is beautiful. I can understand that its hard to think of doing curves- it was great therapy for you tho. I bet when you are ready you will do a fabulous job on a curved quilt of some sort! I think that should be on your bucket list. Hugs!
All three are great. I am glad that you started quilting and that it helped u get through that tough time.