It’s been almost a year since I made my first quilt.
It took me a while to decide to write about it. Was this just the latest in my pandemic hobbies? Would I lose interest? One year, five quilts, and over 100 fabrics in my growing fabric stash later, and I’m thinking this hobby might just stick.
How my first quilt began
Quilting isn’t the easiest thing in the world to get into.
When I decided I wanted to make my first quilt, it was hard to find simple information about quilting for beginners. There’s a sewing machine to deal with, endless kinds of threads and needles, and insider terminology that makes you go “hmmm”, and sometimes, “WTF!”.
I looked around Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram, and eventually found some inspiration that helped me decide on a paper theme.
I bought a pattern called Coins by Emily of Quilty Love – it had simple shapes and looked like I could probably figure it out.
Following my paper theme idea, I found some fabric from Ruby Star Society called Hole Punch Dot by Kim Kight, and a backing fabric from Moda/Zen Chic that looked like old-fashioned newspaper advertisements. Things were starting to come together.
Then things got fun
Cutting fabric is addictive. There’s something about lining it up, cutting it with a rotary cutter, and stacking it up that feels incredibly satisfying.
I went with the advice not to wash the fabric, and I won’t lie. It was stressful. But I was just going with it and seeing how things turned out. My first quilt looked pretty while I was doing it, and that was worthwhile alone.
I was starting to realize that quilting was going to take up a lot of space. I used the floor to lay things out and decide where to put each of the colors in the pattern.
Sewing the rows together was challenging. Did I need to think about which way the newspaper read? Was it OK if some pieces were upside down? I decided to just go with it and see what happened.
Making the “quilt sandwich” (one of those “hmmm” terms) took up even more room than laying out the blocks. After lots of time on my knees and lots of masking tape, I got it all smooth and safely safety pinned.
After the (surprisingly easy) step of machine sewing through the quilt sandwich to quilt it, I moved on to the edges.
Sewing on the binding ended up being my favorite part. Hand stitching it was so relaxing and satisfying. Doing that opened up new paths that impacted the quilts I’ve done since.
When everything was all done, I threw it in the washer, unsure of what would happen. Thankfully it came out all puckery and wrinkly and cozy.
The best part was finishing it! Once it was done and I showed it off to my entire family, I felt like I could take on anything.
My first quilt, wonky stitching and all, still holds a place of pride on the back of our couch. I still haven’t figured out my own quilt voice (I’m working on that). But whatever comes next, I will always love my first quilt that opened me up to an exciting new path.
