Dear Readers,
It’s National Sewing Month! To celebrate, AllFreeSewing.com is hosting a special blog series throughout the entire month. Check back daily for posts featuring our favorite projects, new sewing videos and tutorials, guest blogs from talented designers and more. We’re also giving away a HUGE sewing prize at the end of the month. You won’t believe how EASY it is to WIN!
Leave a comment on any of the blog posts with the headline “National Sewing Month”. Your comment will count as an entry into the giveaway. You are free to comment as often as once per blog post (for a total of 30 chances to win!). At the end of the month, we’ll pool all of the comments together and pick one lucky winner to win the mystery grand prize. And trust us; you want to win this one!
Whether you’re already a sewing enthusiast or new to the craft, our hope is that this September will encourage you to create wonderful sewn projects.
Happy National Sewing Month!
Here’s today’s post:
Although I am the editor of FaveQuilts.com, my quilting memories are few. I spend my days poring over pictures of quilts and I can tell you anything you want to know about any quilting technique, but I’ve actually made only a handful of quilts myself. I made my first quilt as a child when I was maybe nine or ten years old. At that time, my mom was sewing prolifically, and she had a huge bin of fabric scraps leftover from all of her projects. That bin of scraps was my introduction and inspiration in the world of sewing. With the unwanted fabric at my fingertips, I was free to experiment in whichever direction I chose. I made purses, shirts, pincushions, and, as my imagination outgrew Barbie’s fashionable store-bought accessories, caveman wraps and shag rugs for my dolls.
One day, purely on a whim, I decided to make a quilt. I collected an array of blue, pink, and silver fabrics left over from handmade Halloween costumes and dutifully cut out each 5″ x 5″ square with a cardboard template. The finished quilt ended up too small to serve as anything but a doll quilt, but it was my first experience of the warm, cozy satisfaction of making a quilt. I’ll never forget the sense of accomplishment in making something that could provide so much comfort.
Ever since that first quilting project, I have been enamored with the basic qualities of a quilt; the thick, slightly lumpy network of batting and fabric, softened in the laundry and ready to envelop you in its warmth, appeals to your sense of touch in a way that is both physically and psychologically satisfying. But you can easily achieve those characteristics in a quilt as simple as the checkerboard quilt I made as a girl. Fabric and quilting patterns can take you beyond that, from tactually pleasing to aesthetically endearing. The first quilt I fell in love with is the one that still sits on my bed, over ten years after I first bought it. Although I am tired of the furniture I have now and frequently fantasize about choosing new paint colors, I am so attached to the quilt that I refuse to redecorate. Even now, I sometimes sit on the bed and trace the quilting lines or marvel at the beauty of the simple patchwork.
"Wild Child" art quilt from fiber artist Barbara Olsen
When I became the editor of FaveQuilts.com, my appreciation of quilts exploded. I had been virtually ignorant of the possibilities in a simple sandwich of fabric and batting. Through the FaveQuilts Pinterest boards, I began to discover the creative, expressive, three-dimensional beauty of art quilts. But as much as I admired the fabric artists who had created them, the quilts and the art form itself seemed inaccessible to me. Although I am a lifelong crafter and I consider myself imaginitive, the sense of spatial aesthetics and color coordination that make art quilts beautiful does not come naturally to me. I searched in vain for art quilting tutorials, but they come far and few between, mostly focusing on specific techniques rather than finished products.
That’s why my pulse quickened when I saw the Road to Brownwood Quilt by Judy Laquidara from Patchwork Times. It’s a quilt built with traditional piecework patterns like Ohio stars and log cabin blocks, but the overall effect of the finished quilt reveals the designer’s astute feel for the way that pattern and color interact. The purple and gold patterns create a luminous quality that makes me think of a desert sunset. I fell in love with this quilt the moment I first saw it and comprehended the talent it took to design something so subtly beautiful: a traditional quilt that wowed me as much as any art quilt. The best moment was when I realized I could make that quilt. I could follow the directions, cut up the pieces, stitch them together and put it on my bed. I could look at that art every day and cuddle underneath it at night. That’s the moment I became a quilter.
After my first few quilts, I knew I was a quilter … I do dabble in other crafts, but I always return to quilting. And whenever a new baby or wedding or other event is coming up, everyone looks to me to make a quilt for it. Yep, I’m a quilter!
i’ve always enjoyed a variety of crafts, and limited sewing to just making garments (20+ years ago). BUT when I started helping the chuch ladies with charity quilts, I discover the joy of quilting! Helping with those quilts refreshed my sewing abilities, and now I stitch “just for fun” and make gifts for those I love!
It’s clear that you have some definite appreciation for the beauty of the quilting craft!
I worked in a quilting group with my grandmother, mom, and aunts back in 1996 or so. My grandmother created quilts for each family member. My grandmother passed away back in 1998 so doing that project with her was a very fond memory. I still have my quilt that she made for me.
National Sewing Month,
I think the feeling of artistry and love that go into every quilt gives it the extra dimension of warmth. So much of the individual goes into the thought, design, choices and work how can anyone not be warmed and want to create the same for themselves and others.
I grew up playing under quilts on frames as my mother and grandmothers hand quilted them. That was my “hut”. I have only the fondest of memories and appreciation regarding quilts. Years later a friend asked me to join a quilt guild. The rest is history. I was hooked. Quilting brings pure joy to me. It is also known as my therapy.
I have been sewing sence high school(many moons ago)and got into quilting when my son passed away from a car accident.I needed something to occupy my mind and quilting was it.I have made many to give as gifts for showers,birthdays,Christmas and friends.
I have really only made baby quilts… 8×8 blocks of alternating solid and print. They are tacked in the corner of each square by machine, like I was sewing on a button, but I do it over a small ribbon and then tie the ribbons. I pieced a log cabin quilt many years ago (by machine) but never did get it quilted and ended up giving it to someone else who might have finished it, I don’t know.
I have thought often of trying to quilt again, and maybe trying something small to start with, but I have a feeling that once I start I won’t stop… so maybe one of these days… time will tell.
National Sewing Month.
I knew I was a quilter once I found a use for denim pockets.
I’ve been quilting for about 20 + years now. I use to do some crafts & got my first job right out of high school in 1972, because of my sewing & cooking skills. Teaching Adult Living Skills for special needs. The first time I put my first two quilts together where for my daughter & step-son. I had scraps of fabric from extra clothes that didn’t fit anyone. I decided to make them a quilt for Christmas one year, when had no money to buy gifts. And when I finish them & they got them for Christmas,just to see the looks on they faces, was price-less. I was hook from the day forward in making quilts for other folks. I made 8 quilts last year for my grand-children for Christmas. Also have made about 50 baby quilts for hospitals.And many more for gifts for different ocassions also.I enter my first every Quilted Wall Hanging for the fair this year 2011 in memory of my father,named it “Freedom Lives On” got first place. I’m so please with myself that I’m thinking of entering again next year & maybe try out a couple other contest also. I love to sew. I’d be lost without it.
I have been sewing since I was 12yrs old. Iliked quilts but didn’t think I could make one. My niece’s father died in a car crash. I wanted to make something special for them. So I tried a memory quilt. It turned out great. Of course I was hooked.
I’m not a quilter, but I like to knit traditional quilt patterns. I love seeing how quilts have evolved, with traditional patterns re-invented and totally new techniques.
One Easter I gathered up all my great nieces and nephews and traced around their hands and feet onto plain paper. I refused to explain myself but my family is used to my eccentricities and said nothing. the look on the grandmas ,mommies and aunties faces was priceless when they receivied their lap robes with the hand and footprint quilting! I did identify one set from each child, the rest they can figure out!
One of my favorite things as a child was to be allowed to rummage in the “rag bag”, a bag of fabric scraps my aunt and grandmother had left from sewing projects. I loved to handle them and try to make things out of the scraps.
Later, as an adult, I took books from the library and learned to quilt. I’ve loved it ever since. My sewing room is full of fabric, thread, books and dreams.
When I learned how to sew in junior high!
Quilting is like painting a picture with fabric — and even though it takes years, a full quilt is worth the work. I became a quilter when expecting my first child, and finished the quilt after the second was born! But it was so worth the wait!
I’ve always loved quilts and once I made my first one I knew I was a quilter.
I’m not sure. I think when I started going to fabric stores I was hooked!
quilting is one thing that I have never done. I see so many pretty things that I would love to try it. It looks so time consuming.
Some people were just born with a quilter’s heart. Your story is lovely! I can’t pinpoint when IT happened for me, but I am glad it did (my husband is less sure).
I have quilted off and on for 30 years and I still have so much to learn
My beloved Granny taught me to quilt and embroider. She started me out on a nine patch for my doll and then moved on to more difficult patterns and applique. I was given her quilting frame upon her death and it, along with two small quilts she made for my sons are among my most prized possessions.
Quilting is something I want to learn. My sister has made several and I have several my grandmother made out of old shirts and feed sacks. I think it’s amazing to turn bits and pieces into something to cuddle with at night.
I find the idea of a bed-sized quilt overpowering. I don’t like to do the same thing over and over and over again. To get a bed-sized quilt you need a bunch of ‘blocks’ and then you have to piece those together. Then there’s the “sandwich” of top, batting, and bottom …. and more repetitious stitching. I want RESULTS and if not RIGHT NOW, certainly pretty soon! LOL So I really enjoy quilting to create my own “fabric” from which I can cut out pattern pieces — like for entire jackets or for a special yoke on a garment. Otherwise, quilting is limited to the occasional baby blankie that I will use as a gift.
I’m a very new quilter (still working on my first one), but I love to see the different fabrics come together to make a picture, or design. Very fun!
Quilting is a long way down the road for me
Although I’ve been sewing for 50 years, I have only been quilting for almost two years. I think just recently I realized I was a quilter when despite problems I ran into with a project and the work I was putting into it, I kept on going and enjoyed the process. I’m working at improving my work, so I think I’m hooked.
not a quilter…YET!!