Quilts from the New York Sewer

This is the first quilt that I made. Let's see, that was back in...1992 I think. It all started because my mom wanted to learn how to quilt, because a good friend of hers said it was a very enjoyable and relaxing hobby. Her friend had moved away and, being that I am the omniscient sewing/crafting person, she enlisted my help in getting started. We went shopping, got a quilt book (Patchwork Made Perfect), chose a pattern (the LeMoyne Star) picked out fabric (burgundy and hunter green with paislies - remember when they were popular?), went home, put the fabric aside, and forgot about it for about a year and a half.

Then a short time before Christmas 1992, something made me pick up that fabric. I started to make the quilt, soon realizing that the book we had chosen was either written by aliens, or it was written for a quilting prodigy. Well, it was a Japanese book, in English, and some of it did not quite make sense, so I would not recommend it to a beginner. The book was also a bit advanced for what I needed. It is more for learning how to draft blocks, and at the time I had no clue what was going on in it. Now, I think it is a fine resource to have in my library, but at the time I had never looked at a quilting book before, so I didn't know how confusing it was when I grabbed it at the bookstore. If you are a complete beginner, get a quilting book that really walks you through it, especially if you do not know how to sew, or are easily frustrated! The Quilter's Complete Guide by Fons and Porter is my favorite; another great one is Rodale Press's The Quilter's Ultimate Visual Guide.

By the way, I also came to find that the LeMoyne star is not a quilt for beginners, but at least quilts I made after that seemed easy! So, I picked up one of those quilting magazines that had this star pattern in it, and read the section on How to Make a Quilt. I made paper templates and I cut out about 400 diamonds. I figured out "the Y seam" along the way, and completed the quilt in time to present it to my mother on Christmas. The points and star centers actually came out pretty good, and at the time I didn't even know that that was something I should be stressing over.

Now, I did piece the top with a sewing machine, but I hadn't gotten around to learning how to quilt. I used a big puffy polyester batting, the fattest I could find. I backed it with a sheet (I know, I know!!) and tied the quilt with pearl cotton. I never liked the look of flat quilts (I've since changed that opinion) so for future quilts, I would always buy the fluffliest batting I could find, an then had a heck of a time machine quilting it. Lots of puckers and so on. I finally figured out somewhere along the way to not use a sheet for a backing, and to use the appropriate batting. These are things that almost all beginning quilters go through. (except for the person that Patchwork Made Perfect book was written for)

The binding you say? What binding? I had completely forgotton how I had finished this quilt, and I looked at it recently, and I must have just made this technique up: I folded the excess from the front around to the back, and zig-zag stitched it down with.... Rayon Thread? I don't know why I did that, but who knows what state of mind I was - it was over a decade ago. An interesting point to bring up is that I still do my bindings by machine. I have perfected it by now. I hate to hand tack them, although I have to admit it looks really nice when I do hand stitch it.

I don't remember how I came up with whatever size this quilt is, but you can see that it doesn't fit on their queen size bed. it's kind of an oversized twin or maybe a full size. What is great is that it now resides at my parents' camp, on the right sized bed, and it fits in just fine. Plus I don't have to look at my embarassing first quilt all the time, although I still am quite proud of it.

Since my mom knew nothing of the trouble and frustration I went through (remember - it was supposed to be relaxing pursuit!), She was not as impressed as I thought she should be! Don't worry, I set her straight. And, I discovered a new hobby. My mom, on the other hand, never did take up quilting.

References for this project:

Books

Patchwork Made Perfect
This was the first book I had, but it is not a book for beginners.

Links

LeMoyne Star from Simply Quilts - Pretty good instruction, and templates to print out.

Tools

EZ Quilting Templates

This template/ruler makes cutting this quilt very easy! I used it for my second lemoyne quilt.

There is a great Tutorial on the EZ Wright site about how to use this ruler.

Shops:
Quilt Direct in England. They sell all the EZ Wright products.
Creative Quilting and Country Crafts carries the EZ rulers, they are in the US.