Honestly I don't know why or how I was inspired to make a quilt. It could have been that one of my newest friends at the time was the first "quilter" I ever knew. Or it could have been that the fabric I wanted to use really wasn't "dress" material. I can't remember.
I only know why it eventually happened. It was because I had bought some wonderful fabric from Liberty of London when I was in London in an overseas program during one of my college semesters.
At that time I used to make my own clothes, but without realizing it then, I must've been a quilter in the making because I used to always go into cities, find a fabric shop and buy fabric, supposedly to make that next dress, pants, shirt or skirt. But this fabric I purchased from Liberty of London - well once I brought it back to the states, as much as I loved the fabric, it just would not work for me as a dress or skirt. Waaayyy too dowdy, no matter what dress design I selected.
So what was I to do with the fabric? I soon realized it clearly had "quilt" written all over it. So I bought a book to teach me how to quilt. You know the book - one of those "how to" books that Sunset published. And so I began. I cut my 6" squares, created a 4-patch block and stitched it all together. Then I got the only batting available then - that very puffy polyester kind, and I used a sheet for the backing. I then pinned it all together.
But before I began to quilt it, I realized I didn't want to do a binding. I didn't like bindings then (and really I am still not wild about bindings). Since this was a quilt that would end up on my bed I wanted to finish it off with a pretty lace or fringe. So I found some and sewed it to the top (I think). Except I didn't know how to do a mitered corner so instead I just cut the ends and left them. Probably the only very noticeable and huge mistake in the quilt.
Then I began to quilt it, except that I didn't want to hand quilt it. I knew if I attempted to hand quilt it I would never get it done. And I wanted it done! I thought why can't I just feed it through my machine? So I did. And amazingly it worked, without lowering the feed dogs, without a walking foot - and all that batting... I did it!
Of course it is not heavily quilted. And I didn't press my luck to far by trying to machine stitch in the opposite direction to quilt it down some more. I just did some cross diagonal stitches about 10" apart. And to this day I still have the quilt.
Funny thing - I still had some other material from Liberty of London. And I was on a roll now. I thought I know how to quilt! So I decided to do my "second" quilt ever. I gotta tell you, I wasn't quite so lucky in this next endeavor. In fact when I pulled it out of my trunk the other day i saw that it was nearly a complete disaster. I did everything the same, except somehow my piecing and blocks don't line up. The quilting is atrocious, and I even tried to hand quilt it this time, and the backing bunches up, and, and...
Problem is I still love the fabric. It's beautiful. I wonder if it's salvageable. I can only hope.
Happy Sewing,
Terri
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