My interest in quilting begins...

I enjoyed that first quilt for several years without making any other quilts. About the time that my mother expressed an interest in starting to make quilts, I received a crafting catalog that had quilt kits in it. There were two that I liked so I ordered them. When they finally arrived, I was a bit disappointed. The fabric had already been cut into strips (width of fabric). And, I'm not sure, but I think the fabric was not 100% cotton. At least, it had a kind-of stiff feeling to it that I didn't care for. I did make one of the kits and realized that the quilt was not as big as I would like for my bed. So I went to the fabric store and hunted up some kind of fabric that would do as a border (which was not included in the kit, what was up with that?). I did get the quilt top finished. And it was large enough (barely) to use on my bed. Not quilted, just tied. I don't have a photo of this quilt because I don't have it anymore (I hadn't started photographing my quilts yet).

The other kit stayed a kit for maybe 10-15 years before I finally made it. It didn't have any border fabric, either. So I made do with what I could find at a quilt shop. It is definitely *not* the second (or even third) quilt that I ever made. But it was one of my first quilt-related purchases.



After I finished it, I thought that I would probably give it away. But I think it has grown on me. I will probably make a final decision after it gets machine-quilted by a professional longarmer. If I were making this quilt from a pattern and I were using the same colors, I would probably make sure that there were different sizes/visual textures to the different colored-fabrics. But, still, when it is finished, it will keep someone warm, whether me or someone else.

As for the first quilt that *I* planned (pattern, fabric, etc), that was from a pattern that was eventually called "A Winning Hand" (a variation of "Card Trick"). The pattern had not yet been published by Quilt in a Day. The class I took may have been used as testers for the final pattern. Mackie, the author of the published book, was teacher for the class I took at QIAD. This is the first quilting class I ever took, and where I started learning the "hows" of making a quilt, like a 1/4 inch seam, rotary cutting, etc.



It's awfully pink, isn't it. The background is a solid, but the sashing is tone-on-tone. One of the "cards" in the blocks is a solid. And with this quilt, I learned that tone-on-tone reads as solid from even a short distance. So if I stand back just a little, I see what looks like a lot of "solid". Even so, I still like this quilt. The floral fabric remains one of my favorite fabrics. This quilt was finished using the "birthing" technique that I learned at QIAD, and then was tied all over.

The back of this quilt has its own story: I thought I had bought enough fabric for a backing. What I did not take into account is that once I was ready to add borders I wanted the quilt to be larger than the pattern specified (I like extra length hanging down the sides of my bed). When I started to cut/piece the plain light pink fabric for a back, I, uhhhh, mmmm, well..... To put it bluntly, there was just not *quite* enough fabric for the entire back of the quilt. Oh, shoot! Now what to do? I pondered, and thought, and pondered some more. Eventually, if I recall correctly, my eyes fell on the extra squares of the fabric that I had used on the front. Hmmm.... Is there some way I can make use of those? I wonder.... What if... "Racing stripes?" Would that work? So I did a little figuring, and, YES! it will work. The result:



Some few years ago, I decided that I would like it to be quilted and decided to hand quilt it. I just started hand quilting 1/4" away from the seams of the "cards" on the inside of the cards. Ooops! When I look at the quilting from the back, it looked like a swastika. Yikes! Out came all the hand quilting. Thank goodness it was only one block.

I have not (yet) revisited the idea of hand-quilting this quilt; it remains tied.

By the time this quilt top was finished, I was hooked. I knew I would be making more quilts.

Kathy