My First Quilt

About 3 years ago, my husband, parents and in-laws spent waaayy toooo much money on a new sewing machine for me.  It's a Bernina Aurora 430.  It does things I don 't even know I want to learn about.  I took a class to learn how to use it, but never really used it for anything other than mending and making window treatments.  So, about 5 weeks ago, I was just looking through various blogs when I came across one called Obsessively Stitching by a super talented woman named Care.  Care had posted a tutorial called First Quilt Ever.

She was going to teach how to make a quilt.....step by step. It was several months old, so I could read all the steps at once and I was immediately hooked!  I just had to try making a quilt.  So, following her instructions, off I went to JoAnns.  I didn't even know where one was, but lo and behold, one is only 2 miles from my house, right next to one of my favorite stores, T J Maxx. Who knew?  So these are the fabrics I brought home.  I heeded her instructions and didn't buy any stripes or plaids. 

I dove in and following Care's super good, easy-peasy directions I was on my way. I did take some pics along the way, not even really knowing what I'd do with them.  And, boy, I'm glad I did, cuz now I can post them.

Here is one of my block assemblies:

Unfortunately, I don't have any other pictures until I assembled the top.  But, believe me, it was as simple as pie.  I had no idea how all those little squares and rectangles were made.

Here's the strip for the backing, but I don't actually have a picture of the final backing:

 Then I had a problem.  Care suggested that I tape the backing, batting, top assembly to a tile floor so I could pin-baste it.  The problem is that every room in my house is either carpeted (that wouldn't work because I would end up pinning the quilt to the carpet) or has hardwood floors (imagine the scratches if I pinned on that!)....except the bathrooms. So, there I was trying to tape this quilt to my bathroom floor.  I mean it took up almost the entire space... I had to crawl under the counter to get to one side of the quilt in order to pin. Note the quilt taped right next to the lovely shower and cabinets.   lol. :)

Anyway, I finally succeeded in pinning the quilt.  Oh, and by the way, Care doesn't warn you how much your knees will hurt after kneeling on that tile.


Then I froze.  I didn't have the courage to do the machine quilting.  So, the whole assembly is still sitting on the guest room bed waiting for me to get my confidence up to quilt it.  I decided to make a little autumn runner first and quilt it.  Good thing I did because I did mess up in the quilting.  I didn't realize that part of the backing got folded over.  I don't think you can fix that, but I've heard that once you wash a quilt you may not notice it as much.  Then I decided to make the Christmas table runner.  I didn't mess up on that, but it was straight line stitching with a walking foot, so it wasn't a problem.  

Anyway, thanks to Care, I'm now eager to do more quilting/sewing projects.  So, Santa, if you're listening, please bring this girl some fabrics and notions this year.

Joy and Peace,
kelly