what was the first specific to quilting item you got?
Yesterday, 07:27 AM
#1
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2011
Location: SW Washington USA
Posts: 4,447
what was the first specific to quilting item you got?
(sister post to the last item you bought)
setting aside needles/scissors/thread/fabric as basics.
mid-70s...i think mine was a 36" wood oval guilting hoop, about $4.25. although i tried quilt frames over the years i always came back to this, lap quilting was so much easier on my back.
40 years of use gave it a beautiful patina. i gifted it on last year, i hope its been used.
setting aside needles/scissors/thread/fabric as basics.
mid-70s...i think mine was a 36" wood oval guilting hoop, about $4.25. although i tried quilt frames over the years i always came back to this, lap quilting was so much easier on my back.
40 years of use gave it a beautiful patina. i gifted it on last year, i hope its been used.
Yesterday, 08:02 AM
#3
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Greater Peoria, IL -- just moved!
Posts: 6,138
I started quilting before the rotary revolution and such. I did figure out that I could cut multiple layers of pieces (using scissors) if I drafted them out on graph paper -- so I think the first specific thing I bought was "ledger pad" sized graph pads. My first quilt was 1978. My first book was Ruby McKim's 101 Patchwork Patterns, which was a collection of newspaper patterns, that was more like 1980?? (Had checked out much older library books before that)
Judy Martin's Scrap Quilts published 1985 forever changed my style of quilting. Ahh, the old days of having templates for Log Cabin blocks instead of cutting directions...In 1986, Trudie Hughes's book on "Template Free Quiltmaking" was another landmark for me, how to rotary cut directions I understood and could follow... Not quite sure when I bought my first ruler (Salem) and rotary cutter and matt, but would have been before 1986.
Judy Martin's Scrap Quilts published 1985 forever changed my style of quilting. Ahh, the old days of having templates for Log Cabin blocks instead of cutting directions...In 1986, Trudie Hughes's book on "Template Free Quiltmaking" was another landmark for me, how to rotary cut directions I understood and could follow... Not quite sure when I bought my first ruler (Salem) and rotary cutter and matt, but would have been before 1986.
Yesterday, 08:54 AM
#4
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: Corpus Christi, Texas
Posts: 1,923
Ooftah! That was a long time ago! After purchasing my dream Bernina in about 1980, I would say that the cabinet was the most important second purchase! I still do not own many gadgets, but I still use the same machine and cabinet!
Last edited by aashley333; Yesterday at 08:58 AM.
Yesterday, 09:22 AM
#6
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Chula Vista CA
Posts: 7,372
When I started quilting it was before rotary cutters and mats too. Using freezer paper to cut out applique pieces was state of the art. I can remember when Olfa came out with a kit that included the rotary cutter, 18 x 12 inch mat and a ruler in the late 1980's. It was sold at FedCo. I still have the mat & the cutter. Not sure what happened with the ruler - it probably got shaved too much during the learning curve and finally thrown away. (I know, heaven for bid throwing anything that may still have some use in it away. It was either that, or it's in the bottom of a drawer or bin.) I started quilting because I liked hand sewing and embroidering and quilting fit in there at the time.
