Quilts

I’ve made a grand total of three quilts in three-ish years of sewing. I’ve noticed there seems to be a little divide among the sewists out there – you’re either a quilter or a garment maker. I think you should be both!

The first quilt I made was the Timber Quilt by Alison Glass and Jamie Naughton. Was it too complicated for a first quilt? No. Did some blocks cause frustration? Yes. Is the binding a little weird? Yup. Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY.

I firmly believe that if you’re a beginner, you should be making patterns that excite you with fabrics that make you drool. My motivation goes out the window if I’m not inspired by both the fabric and pattern. And you’re not going to want to sit at the machine and work through some bumps if you’re not completely jazzed about the possible product you’re making. When you boil it down, sewing is just following steps (and Googling when you hit a roadblock… Oh, and seam ripping. Lots of seam ripping).

After finishing my Timber quilt top, puzzling out the basting process, quilting it on my dinky intro machine, and binding it, I was elated! I gathered a bunch of graphing paper and began playing around with designs, because after one quilt, you can totally design your own. You just have to break your design into sections, or blocks to assemble it. Seriously. You can design your own quilt.

I made this little crib quilt for a friend and would love to make it again, but bigger! The color palette is just so yummy (to my eyes). The only thing holding me back is that 98% of these fabrics were thrifted bed sheets, so I need to track down a quilting cotton (or another sheet) that is that perfect green/brown color.

My third quilt is where I lost steam and it goes back to what I said about needing to be really excited about your fabric. I made this a WHOLE YEAR after friends had a baby. There was just something about the pink that made me not want to work on it. I also chose the most labor intensive quilting pattern possible to “hide” some mistakes in lining up all the blocks.

When I finally finished this quilt, I also made a rope basket with quilt scraps as an additional I’m-sorry-this-is-so-late present.

I haven’t made a quilt in over a year, but I’ve got the itch. My plans are to make this FREE pattern – Dear Gunta.  It is based on Gunta Stölzl’s work, who was a bad-ass, Bauhaus textile designer. I just have to narrow down my color choices, but I’m planning to use pops of metallic linen leftover from my Farrow Dress!