My First Quilt Piece

So, here I am. Trying to figure out quilting and blogging all at the same time. Up until March of 2013 I didn't even know how to turn on a sewing machine. I didn't own one either.

Quilts  have always fascinated me.  I spent a week one summer with my Grandmother  Bradley when I was ten years old. She  taught me how to hand sew four squares together to make a small block. I think it took me the entire week to finish the block. When the week was up and I returned home, I put the little four square patch away and went on to other things like baton twirling, ballet, and hanging out with friends. But, the memory of the joy I had sewing those four little squares remained with me and surfaced several times after I became an adult. I would suddenly get the urge to sew a quilt and start cutting out squares, sewing them together by hand. My cutting skills were terrible - none of the squares would ever be the same size and the process was so slow that I would eventually give up.

In March of 2013 I came across an ad where a new fabric shop had opened in my area and they were offering a quilt class for beginners. That was all it took for that urge to make a quilt to suddenly reappear. It was a machine quilting class and even though I didn't own a machine (or know how to use one), I immediately signed up for the class! 

The class met once a week for eight weeks and our finished product was a mini quilt. Here's mine - I've named it "The Psychedelic Seams Stressed" because, as you can see, the seams are all crazy and stressed!

While it is far from a perfect quilt, I love it! I love it because I made it and because I learned a lot while making it - all the proper tools needed to make piecing and quilting easier, how to properly square up and cut fabric and how to turn on and thread a sewing machine! But, most important, I learned that every aspect of making a quilt brings me peace - picking out fabric, calculating precise measurements for cutting (although my cuts still aren't always precise!), deciding upon the pattern and layout of blocks, selecting backing fabric and design, basting, quilting it all together and, finally, adding the binding. It all fills me with peace!

So, here I am - posting my first blog post and sharing my first quilt piece. Looking forward to more days of quilt peace and learnings. Peace be with you!