Hi,
I've been lurking here a bit and have been inspired and intimidated by the amazing quilts many here have made.
I just made my first quilt and thought I would share the experience. It was a great learning experience, though it would have been easier and better if I had come into it with more experience. I put pictures up at
One day, I suddenly received a phone call that started "Hi, how's the quilt coming along?" Oops, I had been assigned to make a quilt for a small class that had no parents able to do it. Somehow there had been a communication gap and now I needed to make a quilt in a hurry.
The class theme was Angels, the students needed to contribute artistically. Since this was my first real quilt, I needed something simple. I had some fabrics that would be meaningful for the school to use and wanted to put angels on triangles so I googled for free triangle quilt patterns and found
I drew simple 3 part flying angel pattens and stabilizer patterns so I could fold over the edges. After cutting and sewing the blocks, I cut out lots and lots of angels using quilting scraps from a thrift shop.
After sewing the blocks, I took the angel parts and blocks to the school and set up a line for the children to choose a block, then a body (from about 50) then a wing and a head. Then each block and angel went in a large zip-loc bag with the child's name on it.
I used the directions at
On the day of the auction, I got up very early in the morning to do the quilting. Luckily, the spray basting I got at Joannes worked and I didn't have to pin. I adjusted my pressure foot tension until it was extremely gentle and rushed, just stitching in the ditch except for going around the angels.
I didn't have the time and experience to deal with binding at this point, so I just trimmed the batting and back 1" in from the top, ironed over the top 1/4 inch, then folded it over the back and top stitched, trimming and hand mitering the corners.
Sadly, I had to wash the quilt because a couple of the squares had become damp and the angels had shriveled. Since there was no time for it to dry before the auction, I had to throw it in the dryer. When it came out, I spread it on a bedspread on the floor, took a few pictures and rushed it straight to the auction, 20 minutes before the doors opened. It had been a busy 3 weeks.
I love my Singer 301a which I used for most of it and my Elna Special which I used for the applique. Even though I don't have a fancy new machine or fancy feet, I had a great time.
--Betsy