My Quilts

My friend, Kathy, got me interested in quilting, just after my son was born. She had made lots of quilts, and I enjoyed seeing them in progress and completed. She finally convinced me that even I could do it, despite the fact that I didn't know how to sew. So, in Sept 2001, I bought my first sewing machine, and a book titled, "Quilt in a Day". Kathy convinced me that the easiest quilt to make was a "Log Cabin" design, because it's all straight-line cutting and sewing. So, she took me to the fabric store and helped me pick out fabrics for my first Log Cabin quilt.

Well, I started making the top pieces without too much trouble, and managed to get them all completed in about a month (so much for "quilt in a day"), just before we decided to sell our little house and move to a bigger one, as we were by then expecting baby number two. Since my sewing area was the dining room table, I had to pack up all my sewing things and put them away, to remove the "clutter" while we tried to sell the house.

You can imagine where the story goes from here... we ended up deciding to buy a brand-new house that hadn't yet been built, and moved into an apartment while we awaited its completion. Needless to say, I didn't pick that quilt back up for a very long time! By the time our house was ready, the new baby had arrived, and somehow I just couldn't find much time for quilting. So, another 4 years went by before I finally finished my "first" quilt.

However, I ended up making another one (and a half) in the meantime. To get myself out of the house one day a week, I took a quilting class through the local city programs, and made a baby quilt for Jess. That one, I pieced the top and back, and then mailed it off to someone to quilt it for me. When I decided to finish the Log Cabin I'd started (in November of 2006, to give as a Christmas present), I didn't have enough time to mail it off. So, that one, I quilted myself.

I set quilting aside for about a year, until my nephew was on the way. I made a small baby quilt for him, and of course, I couldn't leave out my niece, so I made one for her too. At that point, my son started asking when he was going to get a quilt. So, we went to the fabric store, picked out some Star Wars fabric, and I got to work.

	This is the first quilt I started, though 2nd one finished. It is a Log Cabin pattern.
	Same Log Cabin quilt, but from a slightly different angle, so you can see the top pattern better.
	This is a Double Irish Chain quilt that I made for Jessie.
	Here's the back view of Jessie's quilt, which I also pieced.
	Ethan's quilt is finished, though this picture is just of the top (I know, I need to take another picture and get it up here). This is also a Double Irish Chain. On this one, I decided to use the darkest patterned print for the 'middle' of the blocks, and as you can see, this approach tends to hide the Double Irish Chain design.