a challenge

I haven't done a whole lot yet, and I've forgotten to add some of my newest work to my webshot photos, but I do have my earliest stuff online.

This was my first machine applique block. I designed it myself based on the Rainbow Bridge pet heaven. I am happy to say I'm much better at machine applique now.

This was my first quilted project, a wall hanging for my bathroom made of four strips of printed cloth with a hand appliqued boat and a narrow yellow border. I designed it myself after seeing the fish and coral prints. As you can see, the boat is a little too small for the overall scale and the blue binding is a bit wavy. What you can't see is the true length of the hanging tabs at the top. Those are a little too long, but it's done and I'm not fixing it at this late date. Another thing you can't see is the quilting on the back, and I'm thankful you can't. I hand quilted it a different way for each section: clouds in the sky, waves on the water surface, around each fish to make them stand out, and beside the main branches of the coral on the bottom. I still like it and it is still hanging on my bathroom wall.

in VA See my quilts at

Leslie, my cat Samson is black, and he only plays with pink mousies, so I see nothing wrong with a quilt based on a black male cat having a lot of pink in it. I'd happily quilt it and snuggle with Samson on it if the mailman brought it to my house. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Oh My what a fun quilt! and I love your captions!

thanks for sharing!

Mine are in my webshots. The first was Henny Penny which was done as a beginners little quilt at my LQS. I was very lucky because despite other people dropping out of the classes, and just two of us remaining, the 6 classes continued. It was a really good way to start as we learned all the basics - cutting, string piecing, seam matching and applique too.

I think they probably kept the classes going because they knew they would recoup the cost with my future purchases!

My second quilt was the Sampler one, again done with the help of LQS classes, and again was the ideal way to learn - lots of one-to-one help, and a different technique every month. I really must get the binding done!

My third was the Trial Garden done in parallel with my Garden quilt in Thimbleberries which I must a) finish and b) photo. It was a class held by LQS where you paid £5 for the fist half hour lesson and got a free pack of Thimbleberries, and as long as you arrived before 9.00 the next Saturday with your completed block, you got another quick lesson and a free block pack for the next block. I decided to do the Trial Garden using stash in case I messed up the free Thimbleberries, and had to pay £5 for another!

The lesson I learned from Trial Garden is that very cheap cotton sheets from discount stores fade, and should not be used as backings. The sky blue backing is now pale blue with pink splodges! Still, it was a Trial Garden!

I can't wait to see it!

I suspect that quite a few early quilts end up in dog beds.... since they are often made of poly mixes they are indestructible and after a while we get better and well the first one is too hard to just toss isn't it?

mine is the all round sofa quilt, picnic quilt and drag around the house and garden quilt which will be demoted to drag around quilt only as soon as I have finished the replacement (whenever that might be LOL)

Ohh lovely!

but since this challenge is all about the beginner mistakes please, please make a close up :-)

Oh, it was no problem to toss my first! I did just about everything wrong you could think of: dressmaker-size seams, wild mixture of fabrics (all the scraps from making clothes for my children, including the impractical pink wool dress coat for a 3-year-old), mystery batting. The only good thing one could say about it was that it was technically not a quilt but a comforter, since I tied instead of quilting it. Looked OK until it got dirty. Then the choice was to wash or toss. So I washed, then tossed. The wool all shrank, half the seams shredded, and the evil mystery batting bearded. Yech! Even if we'd had a dog, the dog would have deserved better. So you can't see it, but you can surely (shudder) imagine it! In my defense, it was only about 1975, when there was practically no useful medium-weight cotton available, and we were in Europe too where nobody quilted. Roberta in D

"Jessamy" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:461a03d8$0$27926$ snipped-for-privacy@news.wanadoo.nl...

I took a beginning quilting class at my LQS about three years ago. The quilt was a small wall hanging that consisted of a Churndash block with several borders and a heart appliqued in the middle of it. We used templates and we could sew it together by either machine or by hand (I chose by machine). I was just learning how to sew. My first attempt was so bad, that I redid the whole thing -- the instructor was impressed by the marked improvement, LOL. Although I completed the top, I had no desire for a wall hanging like that, so it ended up a UFO that I gave to a quilt group.

My second one was a small 9-patch/Snowball quilt from a magazine. I completed the top, but it too ended up as a UFO, which was again donated. The points did not match and I never liked the way that the colors came together.

My third quilt was meant to be a rail quilt for my DH. He helped select the fabrics, but he did not realize how bright the yellow and red would be in the completed quilt. So, I ended up getting a large panel (pheasants/country scene) and placing the "rail" block end to end around the center panel. It had one, very dark border, which also toned things down. I tied that quilt because my husband wanted ultra high loft batting. For some reason, I've never had difficulties doing bindings. We still have this one, but I do not have any pictures of it (nor will I be getting one anytime soon due to my ankle).

I then made the 9-patch/snowball quilt, for my SIL. I did much better on the fabric color choices (with some help from my DH :-)) -- in fact the colors were great. Although my matching of points improved, it still left a lot to be desired. I quilted this one on my sewing machine -- in the ditch and diagonally. This was my first attempt at quilting and it's a good thing that I did it with "invisible" thread because it left a lot to be desired. Again the binding was very good. Please note that my SIL, who is an expert quilter, was delighted with it, in spite of all the mistakes. Although she had given many quilts to others, no one had ever given her one before.

I sometimes think that we are our own worst critics.

Bev in TX

I've been quilting for so long, I'm not sure which was my first quilt! I'm pretty sure it was the patchwork quilt I made for my VDMIL (may she rest in peace). It was made back in the 70's and I used scraps from clothing I had made for DD, DH & myself -- that means a LOT of nasty double-knit -- LOL. There was some velour, quiana (remember that stuff??) and even a bit of velvet and some poly cotton too. I use poly batting and poly cotton for the backing. I brought the backing around to the front of the quilt and used it as a sort of really wide outer border. The fabrics were zig-zag stitched to an old sheet and the whole thing was tied with yarn to hold it together When Ma crossed the Rainbow Bridge, I got the quilt back and "fixed" it so that her youngest granddaughter could have it. This is the one I took apart and redid with all cotton stuff -- here's the link (hope it works!)

. The front still has all those old fabrics but the backing & batting are cotton and the whole thing is properly bound and MQ'd with cotton, too. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

I don't think I have my first quilt. Don't really remember it. I have a wall hanging that is a panel that I quilted as a store sample when I was working at House of Fabrics. And will try to get a pic of it and post it somewhere. Then there were the dozen or so that I made one year for Christmas gifts. I bought some panels of "Little Quilts", printed versions of several of the small quilts that Little Quilts designed patterns for. I bordered each panel with 2-4 borders. Then quilted along the seams with decorative stitches on my machine. I remember that I forgot and figures borders counting only one side. So ended up not using as many borders as I had originally planned to. Made each one wide enough to use one width of fabric for backing. Used one of the early basting guns to baste them. And pre made binding. A few of the quilts, I used a pair of pillow panels instead of a Little Quilt panel. Actually they came out fairly well, and I have seen a couple of them since. Not large quilts, but nice size for the couch, etc.

Will have to take a pic of the project from my very first quilting class too. It was only a block, hand pieced and hand quilted. And then we were given directions for finishing it as either a cushion cover or a tote bag. I made a second block, same fabrics, different pattern, and made a tote bag. I still have it, and still use it. But it is well worn and stained and such. Not bad, really. Took that class the summer I had a surgery scheduled that I knew would keep me away from my machine for a while. It also came in handy when I had foot surgery a few months later. So I pieced several more blocks, in pairs, intending to make more tote bags for gifts. Never did finish them. They are somewhere in the cutting room, I think.

Pati, >