My Quilting History

I thought today I would share a little about my quilting history since this is mainly a quilting blog. (grin) If it gets long, rambling, and boring, just skip today's post, but please come back later. About 15 years ago or so, I decided to make each of our 5 kids a quilt. I had never quilted, yet I decided to make 5 quilts at once. What was I thinking? I bought this book at Wal-Mart. I saw the same book at JoAnn's recently, so I know you can still get it. It is a wonderful learning to quilt book.

Anyway, I started with Carolyn's quilt. I used blues and turquoise, I believe. I never will forget the basting of that quilt. It took me hours. I almost gave up quilting right then. (grin) By this time I am realizing that no way can I get 5 quilts done by Christmas. This was probably August. So I decided to just have all the tops pieced and finish quilting them the following year. I got Carolyn's quilt done. Then I started on Cathryn's. It was baskets and used different greens and beiges. I got it finished. Hazel's was pinks and a deep burgundy. I appliqued 60 hearts with the needle turn method. I decided I was never appliqueing again. (I even forgot how to do it. I had to ask Bren how to do it when I wanted to again last year.) By the time I got Hazel's quilt finished, I was just done with quilting, but still had the boys quilts to do. I put Isaiah's off for about 5 years. His was blacks and greens. Oh my, working on black. That was rough. Poor Jon, I didn't think I would ever complete his quilt. Five years after Isaiah's and 10 years after I started it, I finally decided I wanted to quilt again. Jon, our baby was getting ready to move out. I would be all alone here in the house all day while dh worked. I needed something to do to keep from going bonkers. By this time I had some grandchildren and wanted to make quilts for them, but refused to start another till I had Jon's done. It became a joke in our family. No one thought I would ever finish Jon's quilt, but I did.

See the red border and the firecracker border? I had to add these, cause 10 years later, the quilt was too little for our over 6' son. LOL The red for this border didn't even match the other red. I didn't know how to do a binding. I just wrapped the backing around to the top. I have come a long way in 2 year. LOL Unfortunately, Jon's is the only one of the kids' quilts that I have a picture of. The others were before digital camera days. (grin)

One day, I typed in quilt bloggers. I had found what I needed. I spent days just reading all the amazing quilt blogs out there. The more I read the more I was determined to get back into quilting. I decided to make a quilt for Ashton, our oldest grandson. I used reds as the main color. This quilt was called Dashes and Dots, I believe. I got the pattern from a magazine, but have no idea which one. I had so much fun making this quilt.

This was the beginning of my love of quilting, just over 2 years ago. I have made many projects since then. I hope to share them with you as I blog along. If you are still here reading, thank you so much.
Now Ashton outgrew the Dashes and Dots quilt, so I made him a Yellow Brick Road quilt out of reds, blacks, and yellows for Christmas. Cathryn told me those were his favorite colors.

I used a piece of fabric with bears on it for the borders. I had had it in my stash for many years.

Here is the back of Ashton's quilt. I just hand quilted around each piece of the block.


Well, I had better stop here, or this is going to turn into a book. Everyone have a wonderful day. I'm still having fun.
Winona