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 My Quilting Photo Journal |
 #1 |
I began quilting in 1974 while working at Minnesota Fabrics in the
Washington DC area. The home economist was required to do a quilting demonstration and was looking for help. It
sounded like fun to me, so I volunteered. The pattern I picked for my first ever quilt project was the Lone Star because we’d recently moved from Texas. This was pre-rotary cutters and I never heard of plastic for templates, I wasn’t real sure what a template was period. As soon as I realized I was over my head in skill level, I picked another pattern, a log cabin. That went quite easily, so I picked another one, a churn dash. Before the demonstration was held I had finished four different quilt projects, but not the Lone Star. The Lone Star wasn't finished until about a year later. Then I didn't know what to do with it, so I "framed" it. It was cool when I did it, not so much now, but I'm glad I still have it. It shows me where I started and how much I’ve improved. I made a few quilted pillows, then a baby quilt, and then more baby quilts.. and so on and so on. |
Seeing a student's satisfaction when finishing a quilt gives me great happiness. I find more personal satisfaction teaching someone else to make a quilt than making it for them. However I am occasionally talked into making a quilt for someone.
Quilts that I make for classes are given away as gifts to family and friends, and to local charities. I don't make museum quilts, but quilts to be used. It gives me great pleasure to see my quilts worn out
There are two free projects to go with the first page in my quilting history, Trip Around the World and Trip Around the World scrappy version.
A project I did back in 1997 was Scrappy 9-patces And Snowballs
A first in 1998 were tessellations. For this month's project I'm sharing an updated version of a tessellated baby quilt.
In 2000 I made a Ribbon Quilt wall hanging, and a miniature Ribbon Quilt too. I'm sharing my instructions for a Ribbon Quilt baby quilt here.
I started making miniatures in 2001 and have made many since then for many different reasons. One of my favorite to make is Miniature Baskets, so I'm sharing that pattern with you now.
Speedy Strips© was started when my son asked me for an "ugly" quilt when he went off to college in 2002, "You know Mom, one no one will want to steal." I saw it was a way to use up scraps, and it certainly did. I'm sharing it with the www now so we can use up some of those scraps we've created, and make some lovely but hardly "ugly" quilts!
Folk Art Hearts is one of my favorites from 2003, so I'm sharing that project with the world now. I still want to make that baby quilt
Among other quilts I made in 2005 was a Floating Churn Dash. The quilt I made can be found here and the free pattern for the Floating Churn Dash can be found here.
Fed up with losing points and wanting something a little whimsical, in 2006 I created Crooked Stars. It's fun and easy, and now you can make one too, here's the pattern.
2007 could have been called the year of the scraps, because I used up a whole bunch of them. The pattern Simply Squares was made to help a friend make a quilt, and I ended up making six of them myself. Caution, this is a large PDF and may take a while to load, but it's worth the wait I promise.
2008 was the start of Mysteries For Relay, a new FUNdraising adventure for me. I decided to use my patterns as a fundraiser for Relay For Life. I'd offer new mysteries (or if you don't like mysteries you can wait for the full pattern) every six weeks or so in exchange for donations. The group is still going strong and it has been great fun and a great fundraiser too. This month I'm sharing our first mystery project, Tessellated friendship stars.
I had a hard time choosing a favorite pattern from 2010 and decided finally on Any Size You Want, because you can make it any size you want. Enjoy!
Since I have used this block in more than three quilts I guess it was a favorite of 2011. Here’s the project page for Jack in the Box.
I made two World's Fair quilts in 2012 because it is a very easy pattern and makes what I think is a lovely quilt, any size. I'm sharing my pattern for it here.
2012 was a productive year for me, and this page will finish up my 2012 history. There were many favorite quilts on that page so it was hard to decide which pattern to share. I finally decided to share the Leftovers pattern, since we all have leftovers to use up!
The 2013 page finishes up the recorded part of my quilting history, but there is more to come for sure. The growing UFO list is proof of that. I'm sharing a mystery project from 2013, the Four Patch Chain.
Updated April 30, 2014
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