Guess what? I'm a quilter!

I have always been a garment sewist. When my DD went away to college, I promised to make her a quilt for her dorm bed. Well, after two blocks, I was done with my quilting experience. I figured I could have tailored a jacket in the time it took for me to make those two blocks. My sewing time was more precious back then, and I didn't have the time, I thought, to incorporate a quilting learning curve into my sewing life. Suffice to say, she's still waiting for that quilt.

But I recently decided to take a quilt class at our LQS, because I have always loved the optical illusion and geometry inherent with tumbling blocks quilt designs. However, my taste runs to the contemporary, so when I saw the classroom sample wallhanging, I knew I wanted to take the class.

So I hauled my little Featherweight machine, rulers, rotary cutter, etc. to the first class and dove in to the world of quilting. Everyone else in the class was an experienced quilter, and they and my teacher were very helpful.

Since I didn't want to burden the teacher with too many noob questions, I asked some sewing friends on Stitcher's Guild some basic quilting questions. They were all so helpful! Thank you LaurieH, Doris, TerriB, Kathy, BeeBee, Karen, Pipsy, Pina, Threads and Western Wilson for your suggestions and help on that SG topic. LaurieH was expecially generous with her time and information. You all certainly made things easier for me.

So here is my completed project:






The classroom sample had a single color background, was straight across the top (pentagonal), and had no binding (the backing was stitched and turned), which looked nice, but I wanted to add my own spin to the project. I decided to put tumbling blocks into the background and to add a binding, since I needed to learn that technique. I also decided to make my wallhanging larger by adding additional rows of background blocks at the top and bottom, and to make it hexagonal in shape.

As I imagine happens with all quilting classes, everyone's wallhanging was different, with different background fabrics. Seeing everyone's unique approach to the project was such a thrill in the last classes. It was truly a fun sewing experience.