A bit of background about me and how I got started quilting. I’ve been a fan of the needle arts for, well, my entire life. My Great Grandma P taught my sister and I to crochet, and while I did make a few things as a kid, I was never really good at it. By not really good, I mean that I absolutely cannot keep my stitches consistent to save my life. I once bought all the yarn I needed to make the hubby an afghan and I got about three rows into it before I handed it all to my mom to make. She gave him a beautiful afghan that year for Christmas, lol!
I happily moved into cross stitch after that. Much better! No worries about stitch consistency and I fell in love! I have quite the collection of patterns and supplies. What I don’t have are enough hours in the day or enough people who would appreciate them as gifts. That is honestly only one of dozens of hobbies I have or have had. I’ve always said that I simply cannot start another hobby – specifically quilting. Having more craft supplies than clothes, I can pretty well estimate the time, room and money involved in starting another.
Not Quilting. Not ever.
So when my mom encouraged me to go to Saturday breakfast group at my LQS, I took my cross stitch. The first few meetings I will freely admit I felt uncomfortable and intimidated. Not because the ladies weren’t super awesome, but being the youngest and least experienced person in the room can have that effect on newbies. Well – it was during that first year of breakfast group that my mom coerced me into my first buck a block. I was hooked and very rapidly decided to make a quilt for each of my boys for the spring birthdays.
It was those quilts which really started me on my way – you see, during the cutting and piecing of my oldest son’s quilt, I learned the value in reading the instructions from beginning to end.
Especially in a magazine.
Especially when there’s an appendix telling you how they pieced the pattern to make the best use of the materials.
Oops.
I learned all about squaring blocks down to size and then I got to learn that we don’t throw our scraps away. Oh, and modifying a pattern to fit your needs now that you don’t have enough blocks. I’m sure there was more but you get the idea.
That summer I was able to discover the joys of taking said scraps and turning them into something wonderful – a baby quilt. That was the first “original” I took to breakfast group and I felt almost awkward about not being able to answer when someone asked what pattern it was. It felt weird to say that I winged it. Seemed pretentious and to be honest, felt like tooting my own horn. I never have been good at that. Hindsight being what it is, I might have felt less awkward just calling it a scrappy quilt. Regardless- the quilt was well received and I am now working on actually writing that pattern for future use because I really like it!
A few short months and casual conversation later…
Traffic, time with one of my aunts, and the following casual comment: ‘If I were your age I would learn how to long arm and build up a nice clientele – who knows where I’d be now’. Huh? At this point I had free motion quilted each quilt I finished, but on a domestic machine and it had never occurred to me to do anything further.
Hmm. Thoughts swirling.
Why not?
Business started.
What could go wrong …
Or right?
I realize as I type this that this probably comes across sounding easy – please just take this post for what it is – a very brief look into how I started. I have always been an artist at heart and while I have spent most of my life drawing, I was even a bit amazed at how it translated into thread and fabric. Drawing has always been a wonderful creative outlet and to be able to take those fundamentals and apply them elsewhere was truly a blessing for me.
Honestly, free motion quilting started more as a practical solution to a newly acquired problem. Let’s face it – not everyone has the ability or desire to pay someone to quilt for them. I was in the first category. Enter one of my favorite ladies from breakfast group, Paula. She assured me one day that I absolutely could use my domestic machine to free motion quilt.
Huh? Even on my uber basic, 15 year old Singer? Really? Yup, she says…
Where there is a will, there is most definitely a way – I quickly set to searching for the how and wasn’t disappointed. Hint: if you are unable to drop the feed dogs on your machine, set your stitch length to 0.
That was pretty much it. I quilted a solid number of quilts on that Singer and killed a basic Elna before I purchased my new-to-me Janome. I have added experience with other machines – long arm included, though my preference is still to sit at the machine and move the fabric. My goals are lofty, but at the heart of all of them, is my Quilt It List, and I intend on enjoying every bit of the journey I’m on with it! That also happens to be my tip for the day for anyone just starting quilting – don’t be worried or intimidated, just enjoy!
Happy Quilting!
Amanda