Shadywood Quilts

Depending on the number of folks in your quilt group, you invite 'everyone' or 'some' of the members to bring their 'First Quilt' and their 'Last Quilt'.

If you have hundreds of members, there won't be time for everyone to show their First/Last quilts.

Invite five to ten members that have been quilting for awhile to show their 'first' and 'last' quilt. They are sure to regale you with all the 'dumb' things and errors they did with their first quilt.

Include 'beginner' quilters and more 'seasoned' quilters.

Loads of fun and lots of inspiration at how much growth the quilter has done over the years.

First Quilt

For laughs, here is my First & Last Quilt (as of Dec 2021)

So, the yellow background (made from sheets) was my FIRST quilt made in 1978. This quilt is no longer in my possession, but one of my daughters is the proud owner!!!

I did everything wrong that could be done with this quilt. Granted, it was the late 70's, and we didn't have money. But, I was in upstate New York (Plattsburgh), snowed in, pregnant, and only ONE tv-station. I HAD to get a hobby.

Went to my local Zayre's and bought a quarter yard of all these wonderful cotton and blends for my new project!

Piecing

So, I went to some store and found a McCalls Super Book of Magazine about quilting. Found some wonderful and very intimidating quilt patterns. Aunt Sukies quilt seemed about my speed.

I painstakingly cut every square and triange as per the directions.

I then sewed all those squares and triangles, one by one (this was before rotary cutters and mats!)

Got the quilt top together and decided it was time to quilt it.

Batting and Backing

Hey, this was my first quilt and I was going to go ALL OUT.. I went to K-mart (I think) and bought the cheapest sheet I could find. It was a Martha Steward sheet, so 'must' be good! Found some batting and put the layers together.

Quilting the Top

OK, because I did not know there was any other way, I was going to hand-quilt this puppy. Had the highest quality 180 thread count Martha Stewart sheet (OMG) batting and started the hand quilting. I think I used the BIGGEST needle I could find (hey, it was 1978, before Gore invented the internet). I ended up doing some sort of STAB quilting - where you point your giant needle down, then from underneath the quilt, you point the needle UP with the other hand. Needless to say the quilting from the to looked presentable, but from the underside, looked like hell.... ///////// stitches.

Fast Forward to 2021

Understand that I don't start one quilt start to finish in one fell swoop. I get bored, and I also worked full time making t-shirt quilts from 2006 until 2020 when we sold the company (T-Shirt Quilts of Texas).

So, many of the quilts that I have made are WIP (works in progress) over many, many years. The LAST one I finished was referred to as my 'Dream Quilt'. Don't remember what the quilt pattern was, and I had precisely cut 277 pieces PER BLOCK for this quilt. Worked on it so long, that the beginning fabrics didn't really match the final blocks that I made.

The second row, first block is the first block I did in 1995, which was a Red, White and Blue block. Blocks after that were more purple, greens and pink. Again, keep in mind that these were all hand cut pieces, no rotary or paper pieced blocks. Love this quilt, but it is now on bed in the quilt studio, as it is too small for king bed in the house.

Here is a link to my first post about First Quilt, Last Quilt back in 2014!

 

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Shadywood Quilts is a Professional Longarm quilting business. We can take care of your quilting needs from completing random blocks your grandma left behind to quilting your finished quilt top. We have been in business since 2003.