This month marks my 8 year quiltiversary (the anniversary of my first quilt). My niece’s 3rd birthday was coming up and I decided to get her a doll bed. I found an unfinished one at a craft store and painted it. She needed bedding, so I made it a little pillow and mattress. I crocheted a small afghan. Something didn’t seem quite right though. I decided that the little bed was not complete without a patchwork quilt. I’d never used a rotary cutter, sewn tiny squares together or actually quilted anything before, but I didn’t let that stop me. First, I checked out some books on quilting from the library. It seemed simple enough. I decided what I wanted to make and headed out to the fabric store. That’s not a place that I’d been in often since my childhood when my mom would drag my sister and me there to buy some plaid double-knit atrocity that would later become matching bell-bottoms (she made us go out in public in them. We’ve since burnt the pictures). I spent an hour or so trying to find four or five fabrics that I thought had a perfect little girl quilt feel to them. I took them home, cut them up and sewed them together. Most of the seams matched. One was about a quarter of an inch off. I decided it was ok & moved to quilting. I did a stitch in the ditch without a walking foot and then finally managed some little free-motion hearts. I had no clue how to even set up my machine for free-motion quilting. I was thrilled to have it done and my niece loved the set (again, she was 3). I vowed never to quilt again. Six months later I was in a machine quilting class. Shortly after, we moved to Crawfordsville and I joined the quilt guild.
I’m so grateful for all of the advice and assistance I’ve received from everyone since joining. I can match seams now and hold my own quilting. We are very lucky to have such an amazing group of talented and helpful quilters here!
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