This week at my Quilt Therapy meeting
the show and tell was all about
"In the Beginning".
What was our first quilt and
it's story.
I'm afraid I don't have my first quilt anymore.
It found it's way to quilt heaven a couple of years ago.
1974
I called it Hit or Miss.
2" x 3" rectangles sewn together
and tied with yarn and a red sheet for the backing plus
double batting because quilts were suppose to be fluffy!
So for the meeting I brought my second quilt.
I was an expert by 1975,
or so I thought.
I had discovered applique.
1975
33" x 48"
Hand Appliqued and Hand Quilted.
A pattern in this book was my inspiration.
It was a small gridded pattern that you
needed to draw to the size you wanted.
Can you tell which fabrics are cottons
and which fabrics are polyesters?
Why, the polys are the ones as bright as the day
I stitched them.
This is a turkey if you are having trouble.
The cottons have faded, the solid polys are bright,
the DMC floss for the buttonhole stitching
is still the same color and, if
I could show you a close up of my applique stitches,
you would see them as clear as day.
Mostly because the thread
is the same original matching bright color...
polyester thread.
But that's all part of the learning curve especially,
when there were no classes,
no internet,
no good instruction books,
no quilt guilds,
no quilting buddies,
no quilt shops,
just a black and white photo.
a kangaroo
This alligator had some bleeding issues.
I'm not sure if it was the fabric or the DMC floss.
I don't remember washing this quilt, so I'm
not sure if some color has just wicked out.
I did quilt the heck out of it.
My first hand quilting,
a half inch grid in the background
and a zigzag pattern in the border and sashing.
The good news is that the quality of our cottons
have improved over the past 40 years.
The grey goods are better
and the dyes are a lot more permanent.
This quilt has never been in direct sunlight, yet
here's what's happened over time.
I used the same fabric on both the front and
the back of this quilt.
Incredible, huh!
Look how the fading has even crept
around into the edges of the backing.
I guess no matter when we're
bitten by the quilting bug, our first
few quilts can tell quite a story.
It's just part of our history.
Until Next Time-
