Even though I have loved sewing for years, I was never the least bit interested in quilting. All the quilts I saw were just so busy (and ugly) and the quilting section of the fabric store had the most hideous colors and patterns. But about 5 years ago I began seeing the most lovely fabrics in all the boutique fabric shops. These fabrics were just so beautiful! They were quilting cottons with such fresh and modern patterns… geometrics, dots, vintage florals, oh my! At the same time I began seeing more modern quilting patterns from young bloggers with fresh new patterns and lots of white space. I loved all the white space! It suddenly turned all of those frumpy old lady quilts into fresh, modern works of art. So after drooling over those gorgeous quilting cottons, I finally decided that I just had to make a quilt. I asked for a couple of quilting books for Christmas, read a few quilting blogs then decided to give it a go.
And here it is! My very fist quilt.
I was worried about the tedium of quilting. I have a tendency to abondon projects if they take too long, but I actually loved it! I tend to be pretty precise in my sewing so I enjoyed trying to get things exact and learning how to piece small sections together.
Quilting also provides a never ending outlet for creativity as you combine colors and patterns.
This particular pattern is called “square one” and it is from Camille Roskelley’s book Simplify. Camille is a fabric designer along with her mom, Camille, and she designs beautiful fabrics for Moda.
I used quite a few of her fabrics in this quilt, but the majority of the fabric came from another favorite designer, Riley Blake.
I love the vintage feel of the florals and the soft color palette of pink and turquoise with splashes of red and yellow.
When I first started my quilt I was terrified of learning how to sew in free motion (that’s when you lower the feed dogs and use your hands to guide the fabric into all sorts of crazy patterns). But I am proud to say that I conquered my fears and learned how to stipple. And it was so fun! See all those little squiggly lines? I sewed all of those!
For the back I used a sweet blue polka dot and a smaller red dot for the binding (both from Moda I believe).
And now I have a beautiful quilt all ready to cuddle up in.
And I guess I am officially a quilter 🙂
Happy Sewing!
-Tessie
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