Judy over at Patchwork Times asked if we remember our first quilt. I do, so I thought I'd tell about it since all I've been doing the last couple of days is cleaning up the mess I made making string blocks. Who knew string blocks could be so messy, but that's for another day.
The picture above is of my first quilt while it was being assembled. I promise it's really finished, but I don't have a better picture of it.
My high school offered several different sewing classes: Sewing 101, Tailoring, Family Clothing, and several other classes I can't remember. I took them all. In Family Clothing, the proejects were clothes/things for others. I've got a cute 2T middy dress for a toddler, I made my dad a dress shirt and my mom a blouse in that class. The other project I remember is the quilt.
A 36 inch square quilt, of alternating 9-patches and solid squares, tied, would have met the minimum requirements of the project. But hey, why do something simple -- that I wouldn't be able to use -- when I could make a quilt for my bed?
The quilt was designed so the white squares in the second border would sit on the corners of the mattress. The daisy centers and petals in the center and in the cornerstones were machine appliquéd, then the hand quilted around them. The borders were attached with the flip and sew method. There was no other quilting -- and that's where the problem begins.
I used polyester batting, but it wasn't wide enough. In the picture of the back you can just see where the batt is butted together. I used a whip stitch to hold it together. But after repeated washings, the stitching started coming undone, until the last time I washed it, it came completely loose and bunched up.
At the time, I had no idea how to fix it, or where to take it to get it fixed. It didn't really fit my king size bed, but I did like it and wanted it fixed 'someday'. The last time I know I saw it I was living in Montgomery, Alabama about 7 moves and 22-24 years ago (about the age of my oldest UFO).
A couple of years ago I started looking for the quilt to fix it. I'm confident in my skills now, that I can fix it -- if only I can find it. I've looked for it on and off for the last couple of years with no luck. I'm hoping it's a case of I haven't opened the correct box, and not that it got lost on one of our moves. I'm rather certain I did not deliberately get rid of it.
That's the story of my first quilt. What's yours?
My first quilt (made age 11) is hanging on a quilt rack in my living room. Over 40 years old, MORE than worn. Mistakes and all. Hand quilted by my my grandmother, my mother and I one summer. sigh I miss them!
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