Learning to quilt

As I mentioned yesterday I needed more knowledge before I made or attempted to make another quilt. The need for information caused me to go on line. I looked at pictures of other quilters accomplishments, and read anything and everything I could find on quilting. This was a daunting task and took some time. I even ordered a few books. I found myself reading words like scant 1/4 in seam, rotary cutting mat, paper piecing, on point, fabric stash, saching, star saching, batting, binding, block, log cabin and morning star. It was then I realized that these blocks I was seeing had names like lady in the lake, flying geese and many even had a history. (a topic for another post)

I found myself consumed with quilting I talked about it to everyone. My husband and son were not all that interested but they let me go on and on. I did find a few ladies where I volunteer that liked to quilt, thank goodness I finally found someone to talk to about quilting. I discovered that there are many ways to arrive at the desired results and I needed to find my way.

Finally I was ready to give this quilting thing another try, armed with more information and a rotary cutter and of course a mat, I set out to make another quilt. This time when I took out the scrap material that I had been saving I felt petty good because I had an idea of what I was doing. You can tell by the picture that I am using scrap material left over from years of sewing. I was sure that I needed to practice before I purchased new fabric.



2nd quilt

I called this a pinwheel and I guess it is but I know now that they are half blocks. I painstakingly cut each triangle and then sewed them together. I know now that there are better, quicker and easier ways to do this, but remember I was a beginner and I was learning from the web (what a teacher).





New at Quilting

When I retired 2 years ago I was not sure what I was going to do with my time. It's funny when you are working you can think of a billion things you want to do, then all of a sudden you have all of this time and you find yourself sitting around trying to figure what to do. I though about volunteering my time at the VA (which I do), I thought about having lunch with friends (which I do), I of course thought about shopping (which I do). I visit my dad, I go for walks (just started mountain biking also), I love to hike, but I still had time. What did I always want to do but never had time, then it came to me make a quilt, after all I have been saving scrap material for a very long time as I have always been a sewer. So one night I dragged out all of the scraps and starting cutting (with scissors) I did not know what I was doing but I was going to make a quilt. I was really in the dark I cut the fabric into approx. 3" squares and then I tried to put them together. After all of that cutting and piecing I had a very small quit top. How do you make it bigger, well I started to add strips along the sides, then more strips and as I went along I discovered a few things.
1. You better make all the seams the same size
2.  Hand cutting is not reliable if you want everything to be the same size
3. Ironing the fabric first is a good idea
4. Having a plan was a good idea
5. After sewing together they are not the same size (really)
6. It takes more fabric than I thought to make a quilt
7. This could be an expensive hobby
8. I need more infrmation


First Quilt

9. I am sure I learned a lot more but it was two years ago and my memory is not a young one, surfice it to say that I think I have come a long way and I have learned alot.