Here we go!

So, after another afternoon spent sitting in the craft store reading quilting books, and absorbing so many glorious creative possibilities, I've come home and extended my indulgence on the internet! I'm hoping to find some very creative people at there, and create a mind-pleasing little world on here for when I come home from a stressful day at work. At least, it'll be cheaper than buying a new book every week :)


I am relatively new to quilting. My first quilt was a massive labour of love, and something that got me completely hooked. I'd tried knitting (far too confusing), embroidery (good for keeping the hands busy, but takes to long to get results), and simple sewing (very very pleasing), but wanted a challenge - and a challenge it was!


My first quilt was for a soon to be born baby of undetermined gender. I bought some fat quarters, and other fabrics in pink, blue, green, yellow and purple, and made a very rudimentary quilt top. It was so simple, just squares stitched into lines, but it was so pleasing! I added a border, about which I was very pleased. I bought the backing, a very thoughtfully chosen fleece blanket cut to the right size, layered the quilt on my table, and pinned it well from the centre to the outside. I was ecstatic - and ready to quilt.


I only have a very basic machine - an £80 job bought in haste to start making cushion covers, and I had absolutely no clue as to where to start. I foolishly chose a very heavy red thread to start some simple diagonal corner to corner quilting lines, and unsuprisngly it looked terrible. I stopped quilting, and did nothing more on it for two months.


In time, the baby was born, and the quilt was unfinished. Seeing photos of the baby grow on facebook prompted me to finish it - he would soon be too big a baby to enjoy it! So out came the machine, and some new pale cream thread. One all nighter later, the quilted section was finished.


The next day, tired and cranky from a day at work, I decided to tackle binding. Not something I'd ever done before, and not something I'm really looking forward to doing again. I'd bought some gorgeous ribbon to bind with - and there's mistake numbers 1 and 2! The machine needle was too blunt, and the ribbon the wrong material. I folded round the corners as the book said, and it looked terrible. So I cut the bind at the edges - even bigger mistake. I had to create 'reinforced' corners ('It's supposed to be like that, now he can chew it!'), and the whole edging looked horrific.


However - the quilt was finished. I'd done it. It wasn't neat, it wasn't perfect, but it was made with love, and kindness, and only I could pick out the mistakes, the joins that hadn't matched up, the dire bright red thread. But the baby didn't care. I was reliably informed that he was sick on it the first time he went on it, and now it's used as his play mat. Perfect.