Sharon - NC

Hi! I'm new to posting here, although I've been reading posts for several months and absorbing tips and encouragement enough that I finally finished my first quilt. It was hand pieced and hand quilted and I enjoyed all phases of putting it together. But now I want to learn how to machine piece, at least, and possibly machine quilt (my machine has a quilting foot) because I want to put some quilts together more quickly in order to give them to first-time chemo patients. I'm wondering if you could give me your opinion of an "easy" first-time machine-pieced quilt. I was thinking trip around the world? I'll probably do either machine stitch in the ditch or else tie them.

Being a lurker here and now active has really inspired me and awakened my long dormant creative side! I have so many ideas in my mind I hardly know where to start.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts/input/ideas!

Sharon

Leota

Sharon,
Welcome to the board. I would think a simple 4 or 9 patch or maybe a logcabin would be good quilts to do a first machine quilt.

Sharon - NC

Thanks, Leota. The quilt I completed (hand not machine) was a nine patch and I thought it was a lot of fun. I may try that. Thanks for the suggestion.

prairiegirl

Welcome Sharon.

I might suggest the Rail Fence. It's easy to cut, piece and layout. There are a few different variations.

Quilting is so much fun. And, this is a great group of quilters here with much knowledge and help shared with each other.

sharon b

Hi and Welcome from Northern Indiana ! You will love machine piecing and quilting :wink:

What about a warm wishes ? Or for a twist a disappearing 9 patch ?

btty

I agree, warm wishes is so much easier than it looks. Easy peasy.......

amma

Snowballs or Square in a Square are fun and easy too :D:D:D

Blockhead

I also recommend rail fence. It's simple sewing (straight strips and cut) and the resulting pattern is very effective.

bernadette byrd

Hi,from bernadette-sorry no advice just a question -why are "feed dogs" so important?

Sharon - NC

Wow, thank you for all of the suggestions. I have looked up the patterns, and I really liked the rail fence and thought that looked doable, then I saw pics of the warm wishes and I think that's the winner! I really like the combination of the plain squares with the rail fence. I am going to give it a try. I'll post pictures as I get going.

I'm going to go look through my fabrics now. When my mom down-sized her house and moved she was going to get rid of 35 years worth of fabrics from sewing she'd done ... and I couldn't stand the thought of her getting rid of them so I took them all, even though at the time I'd never quilted or sewn. Now I have three boxes of fabrics to go through to get some fabrics for this project. I think a lot of it is going to be polyester from the 70s, but I'm pretty sure there's probably some cotton in there, too.

Thanks again! 8-)