On The Line: My First Quilt

*Warning: This post is long, but funny I hope, and if you are a new quilter, know you are not alone. Every mistake you have made that you think no one ever has made. I have.*

So far through my blogging journey I haven't said much about who I am and what my background sewing is. I have realized that there may be some chance that people other than my family and friends that will read this. They will find my blog by some google search taking them on a wild goose chase through the internet. So I'm going to put it out on the line and maybe someone will think wow, "I made that same mistake, I thought I was the only one!" Or some may think, "wow, she has no idea what she is doing!" Either way I will probably be making their day. And since this blog post is already so long I will break this up into other posts because I have made many more mistakes and have so many more stories. 

So lets start with the basics. 

I started quilting when I was 19, almost 20, I am now almost 22. I had never sewn before that (other than a few buttons in 7th grade Home Ec.) I was babysitting a couple girls for the summer and their mom is a quilter. She was making her granddaughter a quilt and the fabric had owls on it. I am a complete owl freak and fell in love. Whenever she would come home for lunch we would end up talking about quilting. Needless to say, the first week I ended up not having to watch the girls on Friday, so instead I stayed home all day, computer on my lap. Pinterest at the ready, and I typed in the Youtube search box, "Quilt Tutorials". This is a trick I learned from my fiance who taught himself a lot about golf through the help of Youtube. I found the Missouri Star Quilt Company and watched just about every tutorial they had up at the time. My Pinterest gained over 100 pins that day!

Somehow this is the only picture of my first machine I have. I have upgraded to a little larger Singer machine, but this one lives at my moms house now.

Within a couple weeks I had saved up enough money for a sewing machine. I went with a Singer machine I found on Walmart.com and the day it got delivered to the store was the best day ever! I had my fabric on hand for my first quilt top. I had other fabric ready to test my pattern out on before I started with my expensive fabric. Remember, this was the first time I had ever even used a sewing machine. That weekend my top was nearly complete. I had made a Jelly Roll Race quilt. I loved it! I haven't made one since but am dying to now.

Here she is finished, all crinkled up from its first wash.

I decided that instead of quilting my top I would tie it, because it would remind me of the quilt that my Great Aunt Helen made for my Granny. After my Granny passed away I got that "blanket" and I didn't go anywhere without "Granny's blanket" for a while. It had gotten so worn that I couldn't use it anymore because of all the holes, I was afraid of making it worse. 

Looking back on my decision to tie my quilt wasn't the best idea because I only tied it on the sides, close to the edges. I didn't tie it anywhere in the middle. (You cant see where it is tied in the photo because I used black yarn in the black border. No wonder if fell apart)
 Also remember, I am 19, I am teaching myself with the aid of the internet which is great, but the internet can't always stop you and say, "Uh, you might want to tie it more places or else your going to put too much stress on your seems and they may bust after some use." I had people I could have asked but I wanted to do it on my own. I wanted to teach myself, and teach myself I did. I got a lot of use out of that quilt. It was well loved for the first year. Then the pressure of every mistake weighed on those seems and a couple of them came undone. 

I won't even go into how the the binding is still on that thing, but it is holding on strong. Now that quilt is mainly used for my dog. I still have it and when I see it I shudder to think of all the mistakes in it, but all the knowledge also. Thank you first quit for teaching me so much, and for showing me that I really could do something that I never thought I could. I still make many mistakes but they are typically not a dumb as those I made in you.

Until next time,
--Rachel