My First Quilt

My first quilt is finally finished! I started this quilt in November of 2009. I was staying home with my daughter who was then a year old. And I was starting to need something unrelated to parenting to do. I got a flyer from my LQS (the now defunct Country Quiltworks) and decided to sign up for something. The class was called something like "Quilting 101" so I decided to go for it.


I had no knowledge of modern quilting or blogs or even online fabric shops. But I was hoping that this would be some type of updated quilting. I tell you I had to suppress a groan when I got to class and saw the sample quilt was a totally traditional sampler!!  The same class they have been teaching for 30 years or so. (funny side note, my mom had taken the same class ages ago and never did anything with her quilt top)

But, I'm so glad I took the class because I learned so many great techniques, it gave me a lot of confidence. So, here it is, my first quilt:

With the popularity of samplers right now in the blogging world I guess timing is good on this one! The one thing I do wish was that I had known about online fabric shops. Country Quiltworks had a very specific market (they weren't even selling Moda anymore) and I had a really hard time with the fabrics on this one and I'm not thrilled with them. But overall I'm proud of this one.


And what makes it even more special is that I had it hand-quilted. My grandmother used to quilt with our church for many years. When she learned I was doing this, she put me on the wait list with her old friends at the church. After a year of waiting, they were ready for me! They welcomed me to come in and learn too.

They wouldn't let me work on my own quilt, but I was allowed to pose as though I was quilting - haha! They have a beginner quilt for newbies to work on. But I was really excited to learn from the professionals. The best tip I got from them was using a deflated balloon to pull the needle out of the top, it's got great grip!


What's sad is that when my grandmother joined this group there were 11 ladies quilting, now they are down to 4. I hope hand quilting isn't going away! Look at these amazing tiny stitches....

Can't see them? Yeah, me either! Here's the view of the back.

And in case you were wondering, here are the names of the blocks in this sampler.

54-40 or Fight:

Double Churn Dash:

 

 Double T

Eight Pointed Star:

Courthouse steps:

Ohio Star

Pinwheels and Bear's Paw

Rail Fence:

Snowflake:

Scrap Basket:

Sunrise Star:

Wild Goose

Quilt Stats

Size: 88"x88"

Pattern:  Sampler 

Fabrics: various

Quilted: Wentz's UCC

Date finished: June 2011