2021 was a year of excitement for us as we welcomed our first grandchild!
In hopes of passing along an heirloom quilt from my great aunt, I cracked open my hope chest only to find no quilt. I had forgotten I had passed along said quilt to one of my cousins for the birth of her twins so that she had a family heirloom of her own. Well, no problem! I decided to get crafty and embark on my own quilting journey. Never mind I’d never quilted in my life and had no sewing tools to my name, but I did know how to sew so at least I had that going for me! Thank goodness for Facebook groups and YouTube!
So, first I needed a sewing machine and quilters tools. Instead I went straight for the fabrics before considering what might be needed to actually construct a quilt. Fabric inspiration was needed to get the excitement and creative juices flowing, right? First stop was google for the perfect inspiration fabric. I knew I wanted koalas and kangaroos, but nothing too juvenile for my grandbaby to grow into it. I found a wonderful site that prints custom designs on fabric of your choice. It was love at first site! Pardon the pun. If you are ever searching for something unique I highly suggest Spoonflower.
Next, was the machine and quilting supplies. What the heck did I need? Since I wasn’t sure if this little project would blossom into something more I wanted a basic machine and supplies. First stop was my sewing friends for suggestions on what I should look for in my basic machine. Thank goodness for their guidance as I ended up with an affordably priced Janome MOD-19. It had all the basic needs with a few nice to haves that made sewing life simpler. More to come on this in a future post about not having an overlock stitch for a different project.
Next was the quilters tools…what the heck? This is so much more complicated than basic sewing projects. There is way too much to choose from. Here’s where google once again came in handy for searching for what does a beginner quilter need. I found some great blogs on beginner quilting and as you can see started with 2 rulers, a rotary cutter, fabric scissor, pins, and cutting mat. These all served me sell throughout the project. The only item I didn’t use was the smaller ruler and quickly determined I needed some sort of handle for my larger ruler to avoid movement.
While waiting on shipping of these items I found various quilters groups on Facebook and started asking away about all things quilting. This lead me to some great YouTube videos that guided me step by step along the way.
When everything finally arrived it was off to the fabric store for complementary fabrics for my inspiration. I came across a quilt shop on Etsy that is local. Score! It you are looking for high quality quilt fabric then check out Cali Quilt Co on Etsy and Facebook, or stop by their Website. They sell nationwide and have great Facebook live sales.
Next sewing the quilt….again thank goodness for the YouTubers out there. These videos were my lifeline for figuring out how to sew this quilt together, how to quilt it, how to back it, and finally how to bind it. There were several lessons learned along the way, but the final product was all my husband and I.
Let the construction begin! Thank goodness for my husband as I really struggled with cutting out the fabric. He helped with the math and cutting. I must admit I am not a perfectionist, which is not a plus when it comes to quilting. Once all laid out and happy with our pattern I again called on my friend to make the quilt extra special. My friend has an embroidery machine and was able to add our grandbaby’s name and a message from my husband and I. Such a truly extra special touch!
After embroidery was actually sewing all this fabric together…I was in bed at night watching YouTube videos over and over again, reading Facebook stories of people ripping their quilts apart. I was so nervous! Thankfully I found some YouTube videos that gave me step by step instructions and broke down the quilt construction into easily understood stages. I had decided to do a QAYG (Quilt As You Go) method in hope of making the project more manageable. So many questions…how big of sections do I do, hen do I attach the batting and backing, and how do I do the actual quilting???? I decided I wasn’t going to plan ahead…I just focused on the step at hand and would deal with the next step when I got to it. I’ll have to say this method worked great for me with little difficulties along the way.
All this work led me to make other projects for my grandbaby with the scraps: sensory toy, drool bibs, drool cloths, etc. I found so much joy over this project and started thinking of all the other things I might quilt. I could tear apart the Christmas Stockings I made a few years back and instead quilt them with the used fabric, I could make quilts for others, etc. Well lets say the sewing machine hasn’t made it back onto the project table, but I am confident there will be another grandbaby and more quilts to be made in the future!
-Jill Marie