My First Quilt

If you read my previous post, you may wonder how I went from making a sampler quilt to making a more traditional quilt. Let me explain...

My mother started taking lots of different quilting classes at different shops. One day she was taking a class and the teacher made the comment, "I don't like sampler quilts for beginners. You struggle through one block only to struggle through the next one. You learn through repetition."

This made a huge impact on my mom. She decided to change the approach of our mother/daughters quilting project. She was so excited to share her decision that when she came home she walked into my room and woke me up to share the news. (She still denies waking me up on a school night.)

My mom had me select my favorite block I had sewn so far. It was a fence rail.

Then we selected the fabrics to make a quilt out of that block. I chose to use the pinks and blues this time to match my room.  I had cream and blue wallpaper in my bedroom. 

I thought this was awesome. I no longer had to wait for help with each block. I actually did most of the sewing when my mom was out of town.  I just sat down one weekend and sewed, sewed, sewed.

My mom cut everything out and sewed the borders on for me. We tied it with pink and blue embroidery floss. Mom sewed the binding on by machine and I hand stitched it to the back.  I didn't miter the corners, but for a first time, it wasn't too bad. 

Once it was finished I was so excited that I told my mom I wanted to make another one. My sweet mother took me the NEXT DAY to buy fabric for another quilt. And I caught the quilting bug...  This is me with my quilt shortly after I finished it.  (Yes, I did curl my hair and put on makeup just for these pictures.  What teenager wouldn't?)

Quilt Stats #1
Name: Pink and Blue Fence Rail
Pattern:  Fence Rail from Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!!
Size:  Twin Size about  68 x 90 inches
Batting: High loft 100% polyester
Date Finished: 1993
What I learned: 

• Quilting is AWESOME!
• Don't use embroidery floss to tie the quilt.  I have to keep retying it. 
• The 100% polyester batting will "beard."  The fibers pull up through the cotton fabric in places.

One more picture...

When did you finish your first quilt? 

XX,
Jasmine