lpsewing

My avitar picture is my first quilt,still need to finish binding though.
Took my first long arm class the other day,I really liked the class & did long arm this quilt,kinda neato !!!

manyana

My first quilt was a sampler. I went to a class (back in 1985). The teacher made it so complicated that I thought there had to be an easier way. Went to another class, read lots of magazines and have not looked back since then. The sampler was never completed.
Colleen

slstitcher

My daughter was going to college and wanted a quilt for HS graduation. I just cut squares the size of a CD case and started sewing them together. I now know there is an easier way, but it looked really nice on her bed in the dorm room.

Lobster

Carpenter's Square sofa quilt in greens, about three and a half years ago. It turned out nicely and my partner is particularly fond of it, but things I wish I'd known before I started:

1) My current, quicker method of piecing, learnt from that queen of hand-quilters, Jinny Beyer (well, her book). Those blocks took 6 hours each at the speed I was going at back then, including marking and cutting. And I only discovered audiobooks about halfway through!

2) Which way to point a rotary cutter (think I gave up and used scissors).

3) That it's a lovely pattern for a quilt where you'll see the whole thing at once, but looks a bit boring when it's scrumpled up on a sofa and you can only see bits.

4) Most importantly, that the woman at the fabric shop who told me that you only need three fabrics for a quilt was talking UTTER NONSENSE, at least if you want the quilt to be interesting. I use two dark greens which look practically identical, a medium green, a cream, and ended up adding a green batik for the border. The other fabrics were all semi-plains, so really not that interesting visually.

5) Also not to trust photos in catalogues or online, and to get some of the fabric before you commit yourself. The quilt is a smidgen too olivey for the sofa, though I just about get away with it.

jdiane318

My first quilt was an 8-pointed star, 8-hour quilt on the front of a Simplicity magazine, made it from purple/off-white print and off/white/purple print, positive/negative prints. 50" square. My kids used it till it fell apart and that was about 3 years ago.

darlin121

A Double wedding ring wallganging size quilt!
WHAT!??? No one told me to start simple! It is currently my oldest U.F.O. at 25 plus years. I know, I know.... I'll get around to it.

QuiltnCowgirl

I've sewn since I was 12 years old, having learned from my Mom. Mom was the quilter though. My first quilt came about because of two boxes of scrap fabric I inherited when my Mom died in 2007. When we were kids she sewed all of our clothes. She saved fabric from clothes she made for me & my 2 brothers with the plan to make quilts for each of us. The quilts never got made. The boxes came to me. And I knew I had to finish them for Mom. Sept 2009 I took a Quilting 101 class at my LQS and made an Irish Chain bed size quilt. I've made 8 quilts since, varying from bed size to doll quilt. Later this spring I will begin the scrap quilts & plan to present my brothers with theirs at Christmas.

katybob

My story's similar to QuiltnCowGirl's. My mother wasn't a quilter, but she made most of the clothes my two sisters and I wore and and all of the curtains, pillow cushions, and slipcovers in our home. She saw a picture of a quilt in a magazine or catalog that she liked and started cutting 6" squares of fabric from tons of blue and white fabric she'd accumulated over the years. This was years before the rotary cutter was invented and she grew tired of cutting squares and put them in a box with the picture of the quilt. When she passed away, the box of blocks and uncut fabric ended up at my house and several years later it became my first quilt.

BKrenning

I wanted a quilt for our brand new king size bed & didn't like the colors or prices of Walmart quilts. I had sewn clothing for myself & kids many years ago and fabric was only $1 per yard back then so I thought I was saving money! I had fabric left over from those days and started hand piecing a Grandmother's Flower Garden. I soon realized I might not live long enough to finish a hand pieced & scissor cut GFG so decided to try something smaller. I found a pattern at McCall's on line--Dove at the Window--made cardboard templates and started cutting it out again with scissors from 10 year old fabric in my clothing stash & hand piecing it. Hubby kept teasing & nagging me to use the sewing machine he had bought for me 6-7 years previously. He was also nagging me about using the dining room table to lay out the fabric on while cutting. He seems to think the dining room table is only for eating & letting the mail accumulate on.

Anyway, I also discovered Simply Quilts on television & when I ran out of patience with hubby's nagging; I broke down and bought a rotary cutter & cutting mat and had him setup a spare table we had in the family room so I could set my sewing machine up and use my new toys. The sewing machine had been used by my sister to make something with red flannel and it was covered with red fuzz & constantly jammed so another delay while it went to be repaired. While I waited for it to be fixed--I became obsessed with Simply Quilts and every magazine I could get my hands on. Even old ones from the 1980's that MIL had found somewhere in her hoard.

Eventually, my machine got repaired and a grandbaby was born so I had to make a quilt for her before I had even finished that modified Dove in the Window quilt. I did everything wrong & had everything go wrong that possibly could but I struggled through it all.

I finished the baby quilt first and her mother was so happy with my very amateur skills that it just fed my obsession. I had 3 quilts going at one time and then found the quilting groups on yahoo and joined a paper piecing block swap. I was in way over my head & loving every minute of it. I loved every step of the process except for piecing the backings which I overcame by using sheets & making double sided quilts.

MadQuilter

My first quilt top was a scrappy sampler but it never got finished. My first quilt was a rather large white and lavender crocus quilt for my brother's wedding. The SAME year my little sis got married and she got a black and white log cabin - queen size.