My First Quilt

I’m tempted to say this is the quilt that started it all, but that wouldn’t be correct. Really, this is all Josie’s fault. 🙂

Remember that pandemic we had a few years ago? Remember how everyone with a sewing machine (or not) was making masks? Well, we were too. Josie and I made over 100 masks during those first few weeks with scrap fabric we had on hand or gathered at Grandma’s house. During one of our mask-sewing marathons, Josie (12 years old at the time) reminded me that making a quilt was on her bucket list. The sewing machine was out and we’ve got no where to go.

Challenge accepted!

But do you recall what might have been in short supply at the stores during this time? Yup, fabric! Unlessssss… enter the jelly roll! Those 2.5″ strips are not really useful for making masks so I was still able to source them easily with curbside pick-up.

After scouring the internet for tutorials, I settled on this very thorough one for a Diagonal Strip Quilt from Cluck, Cluck, Sew.

I grouped my mismatched jelly rolls into sets…

Imagine there are photos here of the strips all sewn together like in the tutorial I linked to above. 🙂

After trimming my blocks, I sewed them into larger blocks of 4 before moving on to the next step.

Having in my possession at the time only a small, domestic Singer sewing machine from 20+ years ago, I also went down ALL the rabbit holes for Quilt As You Go. I’m sure I combined ideas from many different quilters, but quilting guru Angela Walters has an excellent video demonstrating the technique I ultimately decided upon. Each set of blocks was quilted with the top, batting, and backing all sandwiched together.

Batting and backing acquired! (Confession: by the time I got to this step, I could once again shop IN STORE.)

Using a simple serpentine stitch (a zig zag would be equally lovely!), I spiraled out of the center of each block set.

The next step assembling the blocks and laying that seam down along the backing (horizontal AND vertical seams!) was honestly the most difficult, especially as a new quilter. Angela Walters made it look so easy. I’m super happy with the way it turned out, but I haven’t done another quilt this way since.

I have much more sewing equipment at my disposal now, but were I to do another Quilt As You Go project, I would decoratively quilt the blocks with only their top and batting (and maaaybe a thin layer of muslin backing?), sew those together, and then attach the entire quilt top to a whole backing with minimal quilting. This technique can be found in Jera Brandvig‘s book Quilt As You Go Made Modern.

So all of this to say, I figured out how to quilt. Now I felt like I could help Josie do the same. And she did it! She made a “first quilt” too. But you’ll have to keep an eye on her artist page for those details.