To Start with...

This is the first quilt I made. I wanted to share it with you because it says so much about me. First, I love hearts, and that theme runs in most of my work. I love red, pinks, and how those colors contrast to black. Bold designs, bright colors, and hearts--love, love, love. Not everything I do has all these elements in it but my first project did. Second thing is I dive right in. I had no idea what I was doing, and if you look closely at the picture you can see it's not perfect. (I am a slight perfectionist, but that comes out a little later) I used a pattern from the first magazine I picked up and flipped thru. I followed the pattern to the letter, I cut each piece of fabric just right, pinned each piece together before I sewed it, and sewed each piece one at a time (I had no idea that there were shortcuts and bias cutting, or that you can stack the fabric to cut the same shape etc...) When I got the top done I didn't know what to do next. I consulted Mimi (my mother-in-law) and she told me that you have to get batting and backing. I went right away and got both. I read how to make the sandwich and pinned it and selected a 'fun' pattern on my machine. (It happened to be the zig-zag as you can see in the picture) 

Third and fourth thing it says about me:

It's not done and I learned a lot from this project. Probably the most important thing I learned was that you need more fabric and batting on the back than the top and it is a tricky thing to fix when you don't know what your are doing! As to it not being done, I have many, many, many projects 'in the works' (Mimi says that happens with everyone, but I'm still not convinced) I go back and forth-- Should I just take the quilting out, expand the backing and re-quilt it? or should I just leave it, imperfections and all? I have debated for five years, and even as I type this I am split.

I love looking back on this quilt. I keep it at my sewing station as a reminder of where I have come from. I highly encourage diving right into any project- you might not have the courage later on. Right after 'finishing' this quilt I jumped right into a log cabin. Any quilters out there know how tedious and time consuming these can be! Imagine trying to cut each piece, one side at at time (instead of fabric into strips and then strips into pieces) and then to start putting all the pieces together. I abandoned the project pretty quickly, frustrated that my squares were not coming out square and some of the pieces I had cut were too short, or too fat. I put everything I had done in a box and stuck it in the back of the closet.

Two years later I became pregnant and couldn't climb down the stairs to my sewing space. So Ben and I moved my whole quilting station upstairs. In the move I found the box with the scraps I had cut and became inspired to try again. I had learned so much and I was ready. I ironed out each piece, resorted the piles, and let my perfectionist intentions go. What I ended up with was an amazing step forward in my quilting skills. (There will be more on this quilt later but here is what I ended up with)

Let me leave you with this, try something new, if you get frustrated--put it away for a while. It may take a day, a week, a year, or even five years but when it speaks to you again, be ready to listen. I know for me it took two years for my hands to make what my mind was seeing and wanting.