After five years of quilting, I have started to lose track of all of my projects that I’ve made. As I have gained confidence in my quilting skills, I’ve slowed the process of documenting my work.
I wanted to create this space to reflect back on all that I have made. I will be adding images of as many works as I have pictures of to note what inspired each piece and where it went.
I started sewing again in 2020, during the pandemic. In my working memory, I have always known how to use a sewing machine. My mom taught me at a very early age. She used to make me shirts to match her nursing scrubs as early as 3 years old. I was always delighted by the fun fabrics she brought home. I learned to sew in order to make Halloween and Renaissance festival costumes, always a great joy to turn fabrics into clothes that let me live a fantasy. It was always a family adventure, but usually only once or twice a year as a family project with my mom. I guess I took my knowledge of sewing for granted.
During the pandemic, I pulled my sewing machine out of the closet because we couldn’t buy masks. I took old sheets and hair ties, and I turned them into masks.
Then in 2021, I decided I wanted to learn to quilt. I grew up in Hamilton, Missouri. It’s a small town that is now known as Quilt Town USA. As I was growing up, it was a desolate place. There was our school, subway, a gas station, and not much else. The entire downtown area was filled with abandoned storefronts with busted-out windows. Around the time I went to college, Missouri Star Quilt Company started buying up the buildings and turning them into quilt shops. They fixed up the old buildings, restoring them. Then, they built a distribution center. Now, the whole town is filled with quilt shops, and it’s a tourist spot for quilters. My mom picked up quilting, and I longed to share a hobby with her. I wanted to reconnect with her like we used to when we would make Halloween costumes.
April 2021:
I made these little pinafores for my niece around easter time. My mother had purchased the fabric several years before and had this pattern already picked out for them. I just made it happen. My niece used them as aprons for doing crafts.
June 2021
This is my first quilt ever. It’s a jelly roll quilt that I made using fabrics from my mom’s basement, and I found the pattern in a Missouri Star magazine. I bought cheap polyester batting from Walmart and tried to teach myself free-motion machine quilting. It was an ambitious project!
June 2021
This is a baby quilt that I made for my niece. I believe this was still cheap polyester batting. Here, I experimented with raw-edge appliqué. The pattern is Bohemian Garden by Suzy Quilts. I do not remember the fabrics, except that the marble-colored one is from Tula Pink. I did not understand the difference between 108″ and standard 43″ fabrics, so I bought WAY too much. Good thing; I love this fabric.
July 2021
This is another baby quilt that I made for my new niece. I made it from a panel I bought on sale at Missouri Star while I was visiting my mom. For this project, I was also learning how to do free-motion machine quilting. I loved having my mom’s Husqvarna with a stitch regulator. I never could have done this on my own machine. I thought I was really clever hiding the Illuminati symbol in there as a joke. I was a little disappointed to find out that I put the backing fabric (Little Mermaid themed) on upside down.
September 2021
I decided to make my sister a matching diaper bag after I saw a sample bag in the local quilt shop while visiting my mom. Crossroads Quilt Shop, I believe, is now closed. I bought a paper pattern of the older version of Ultimate Travel Bag 2.0. Wow! This was a tough project! I think the new version of the pattern deals better with all of the layers, but this bag has layers and layers of foam and strapping that are a menace to any machine. I made it on my 1948 featherweight.
In this project, I learned the cool trick of covering your strapping with fabric. I also learned about bias binding.
October 2021
In October, I participated in my first swap on r/quiltingblockswap. This pattern is called urban chickens. I made this quilt for my best friend, who has affectionately earned the name Bromie Bear. In the swap, I was assigned to make all purple blocks and mail them to the 12 members of my group. Then, I received their colored blocks. I was so happy with the camaraderie of this Reddit group. My group even decided to send extra strips of fabric to use on the rest of the quilt. I used those to border the silly panel on the front side of the quilt.
In this swap, I met several friends with whom I still text or message on Discord.
In this quilt, I wanted to learn to make prairie points! I have an old quilt made by my brother’s grandma, Amy, in the 1950s, and she used prairie points all around the edge. This inspired me to want to do the same.
November 2021
Laden with Zoom meetings, I was sewing a lot in November. I made this Thanksgiving table runner in just two days. I used the Turkey Trot video from Missouri Star to make the Dresden plate turkeys. My mom sent me this charm pack in the mail. It was by Windam Fabrics. Around this time, I started meeting up with a group of older retired gals on Fridays for quilting and tea. I got the orange and brown fabrics from one of the ladies’ stashes.
In this project, I learned how to make a Dresden plate. I also enjoyed doing matchstick quilting for the first time. Sadly, I no longer have this table runner. In 2023, I used it to wrap up a casserole dish for one of my husband’s work parties, and I accidentally left it at the host’s house. I was too intimidated to reach out the the lady who hosted the party, so I left it. I hope she enjoys it.
I made this adorable lunch box for my father-in-law. Inspired by his love of Mexican food and his very large moustache, I enjoyed personalising the fabrics. I got the moustache fabric from my friend, Gale, who hosted a quilting and tea event every friday. I am so sad we no longer have Alexander Henry fabrics. The pattern (as you see in the photos) was Grab Some Grub 2.0.
This was my first time using stretchy mesh. I really appreciated how this pattern fixed some of the issues I had with the layers in the older By Annie pattern. I did put the clip on wonky. Looking back now, I wish I had taken the time to seam rip and centre it.
Finally, I made this batik quilt for my friend, Kristen, as a birthday gift. She is such a quirky delight of a person, and I wanted to make something as bright and happy as her personality. I got this charm pack from my mom in the mail.
December 2021
In December, I decided to make some stockings from my scraps. The lining from the stockings was an old chair cover that my neighbour, Cheryl (who got the first quilt), gave me. In this project, I learned to penny piece. We still use these stockings. In fact, they are hanging right now!
I consider this bag, which I made for my mother-in-law, a failure. I hated the color combinations. The edges of the bag sank in. Oh well! I still gave it to her for Christmas.