Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy, the famous Park City Girl is hosting the third Blogger's Quilt Festival. Over 200 talented quilters have posted their beautiful quilts for all to enjoy. Take a minute to feast your eyes and inspire your creativity. The online quilting community has some serious talent, but you probably already knew that.

Here's my little story of my very first quilt. It's not stunning, modern or anything like I make now, but this little quilt still has a place in my heart since it got me started in this crazy hobby.

I have always loved textiles (vintage tablecloths and napkins, feedsacks, fabrics, bandannas, handkerchiefs, quilts, funky clothes, etc.). I've collected my share of these items over the years, but never thought about sewing. My mom sewed when I was younger and my dad made repairs to his sailboat sails and whipped up Barbie doll clothes for me on my mom's ancient green Singer. They were too poor to buy maternity clothes, so mom picked up a used Singer and made all her clothes when she was pregnant with me. My grandmother gave me her Brother sewing machine when I got married, but I never used it. Sure wish I had those old workhorse machines!

When my children were younger, I decided I wanted to learn to sew. My dad (and my husband!) both bought me inexpensive Singers for Christmas. I made bathrobes for both kids and a fleece jacket for my daughter. My daughter's kindergarten friends all begged me to make them each a jacket just like hers. I could have gone into business! Garment sewing was just not for me. The patterns made my brain hurt. I packed up the machine and it sat for years.

In 2007, I decided I might want to learn to quilt. I dusted off the Singer and started with a postage stamp quilt using 1.5" squares of my vintage fabric scraps. Yeah, what was I thinking? 252 finished 1" squares!  I was so proud of my first effort, I hired a machine quilter to quilt it (I'm still afraid of the actual quilting part). I bet that longarmer burst out laughing when she received my little 19" x 23" flimsy! I didn't know enough back then to ask how or if she ever loaded it on a frame. She supplied the batting and backing and made my first quilt look good!

Fast forward to today, and I am still totally hooked on all things quilting. I have enjoyed the online quilting community, which has been a constant source of inspiration and education for me. I've made hundreds of quilts, tried numerous tutorials, bought thousands of yards of fabrics, have a virtual library of quilting books, given quilts to charity, cut my teeth on Blocks of the Month, hosted doll quilt swaps for a year, written a quilting e-book, joined a guild and basically learned everything I know about quilting from books, tutorials and my online quilting buddies. My guest/fabric room may never be the same and my graphic design studio has to share space with my quilting studio, but what a rewarding three years it has been. I'm never turning back. Thanks to all of you!