My First Quilt

Yesterday, June 16, 2009, I finished the last stitches on my first quilt. Unable to resist, we slept with it last night. Today, however, it was washed and hung out to dry. A real quilt, begun in September 2008 as I prepared to move to across the ocean to make a new home.

I starting cutting in October. Sewing in November. Attempted to quilt it by machine in December, only to rip out all the stitching and re-pin the layers on Christmas day, before I packed up in a box and shipped it to London.

The final pins on Christmas day

A king size creation, the binding took a while to complete by hand--my great-grandma's Singer table top machine not the easiest to travel with on a airplane. But, I managed it. And as Alex say, I think it adds a nice touch.

Anchors and Strawberries just for Alex & me

It is a scrap quilt, although I wish I could say they were all scraps I had just lying around. Some, yes: the handkerchief pattern, the multiple versions of red & white polka dots. Some I found new (see: 1930s reproduction fabrics) and some from the back rooms of Yreka's finest charity shops. Some of the best finds actually. Others are from my psuedo-grandma, Em, who gave me the start to this quilt, and a few others from G'ma Jan, who's been sewing for years.

Finally settled on tying off the quilt, it works.

Ever a romantic, the pattern I chose for this quilt is called "Because Two People Fell in Love." While the nice woman from the South who submitted the pattern to a quilting magazine that she used for her daughter and son-in-law's wedding quilt may or may not approve of Alex and I's love, I felt the sentiment of the title was spot on, and just that simple.

When I started the quilt, I was piecing together what my life had been over the last years and trying to sort it into boxes and bags and suitcases, trying to predict what I might need in the next moves I would make. Piecing things together, I decided, was like the steps of making a quilt. There's "the vision," as fellow quilter Leslie and I call it, the finding of fabric, cutting the squares, laying it out to get the feel for it all.

Everything in making a quilt is one step at a time, taking things in stride, following a pattern but always bending the rules. Frustrating and rewarding. Filled with love and hard work.

As we lay in bed last night, testing the warmth of the new quilt, we were already dreaming of what a winter quilt might look like: big strips of fabric, blues and purples maybe. But for now, we have our quilt, drying on the line, summer just about to begin, two women in love.

'Because Two People Fell In Love'
(Clotheslines again, I just can't help it.)

Thanks to Em, G'ma Jan, and LuAnn for much needed advice and supplies. Leslie, Katie F, and Reneé for learning to quilt with me. Kate and j. for inspiration, fabric and listening to my constant reports on "how the quilt's coming along." Dad, for letting us young quilters take over the house. Mom, for patience and helping me rip out all those damn stitches. And Alex, for loving it with me.

(Can you tell how huge of a project this was for me?)