Trunk Show Thursday–2/24/11

The Story of my First Quilt

Often I am asked how many quilts I’ve made over the years and the answer is “I HAVE NO IDEA”.  I know someone that has always numbered their quilts but unfortunately I never even thought of doing that.  I’ve given away a lot of quilt over the years, how many?  “I HAVE NO IDEA”.  I’ve also been asked many times, how many quilts do I have in my house?  Can you guess the answer??????  “I HAVE NO IDEA”. 

As part of my dog and pony show when I visit guilds I do a trunk show of lots and lots of quilts and each time it’s a different collection depending on which lecture and depending on which quilts I pack.  There’s always a big variety but I almost always start off with my first quilt. 

I’ve decided that each Thursday I will post a quilt from my trunk show and in the process maybe I’ll figure out how many quilts I have, although I really doubt it. 

So here’s my first quilt.  Not only the first quilt of the trunk show but my very first quilt.

It’s all my sister Melinda’s fault.   She lived the other side of the country from me but manage to convince me over the phone that I could do this.  After all I’d been sewing most of my life but had never been interested in making a quilt.  In fact, I was afraid of making a quilt.  All that stuff about 1/4” seams really intimated me.  Well anyway she talked me into it so I headed out to my local JoAnn’s and bought this book.

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and no imagination at all.  I opened the book and found the quilt I liked the best. 

Notice any similarity?  I told you, I had a no imagination.  I took the book and wondered around the store until I found almost exactly the same fabrics.  I managed to get it made but then I had to quilt it.  In the book they had just done a cross hatch in the center, so guess what I did.   A cross hatch of sorts.   Then it was time to do the border.  The book said to free motion quilt in the border.  I had no idea what that was so I decided to do what I knew how to do best, absolutely nothing, no quilting at all. 

I will tell you this, I was so proud of this quilt that it hung in my family room for years until………..the owner of a quilt shop came for a visit to talk to me about teaching in her shop.  She was very nice and even complimented me on my wall hanging.  She said it was a very “friendly quilt” it was waving to her.  I was so embarrassed because sure enough, since I hadn’t quilted anything in the borders it didn’t lay at all flat it just waved and waved.  

After that the quilt came off the wall and became a feature of my trunk show.  I like to think I’ve come a long way from that first quilt.

Enjoy,