My First Quilt

When I was in the 8th grade, my mom arranged for a neighbor to teach me how to sew.  My mom was so wise not to try teaching me at that age.  I remember making a blouse and a pair of shorts and I was hooked on being able to make my own clothes from whatever fabrics I wanted instead of having to pick from what the department store had in stock.

So I sewed my way through high school and college.  My parents gave me a Singer sewing machine for college graduation.  Singer had such a good reputation in those days, but something changed in 1969 and the machine I got sewed OK but the top thread was constantly snarling under the fabric.  I finally got tired of it, sold it and vowed never to buy a Singer sewing machine again.  From what I've read by others online, I gather the machines have not improved.

My second machine was a Sears model and I used it for 33 years, sewing not only for myself, but also clothes for my husband and 2 boys.  That machine finally got to a point where it was just worn out and I replaced it a few years ago with a Janome Memory Craft 11000 Special Edition.

One day I saw an ad for a pattern to make an ABC quilt for a child where you used fabric paint to paint the blocks and then quilted it.  Now I had never made a quilt, but I had a child who would love such a quilt and sent off for the pattern.  I used a bed sheet and painted all the blocks on it.  Then, I used another sheet for the backing and put a double layer of batting in between (a quilt should be warm, right?)  I used my sewing machine to stitch (quilt) around the designs  Then, because I had seen quilts with borders (sashing) in between block, I sewed strips of decorative ribbon to divide the blocks. Finally I sewed satin blanket binding around the edges and I had just made my first quilt?

In 1978, I entered it in the Guilford County Agricultural Fair in High Point, NC.  You won't believe it but it got a ribbon for 2nd place in the "Best Designed Quilt" category and I received a prize of $2.50!  This quilt was so bad that later, when I had joined a quilt guild and had to tell about my first quilt, I did NOT show this quilt!  Instead, I told about my second quilt, which I still have today.  But that's another story.