Sunday 16 November 2014

My first quilt

Today I thought I'd show you my first quilt. It's not the first quilt I ever made, but it is the first quilt ever made for me!

My Amish inspired quilt

My mum discovered patchwork and quilting in the 1980s. After making her first few quilts, she asked me if I would like one. Of course we didn't have the internet then, so I trawled through some books from the library I discovered I was attracted to the Amish quilts with clear lines and bright colours.




I found a pattern that I liked, but the funny thing was that this quilt was made from brown and pink florals in the book. I knew that I wasn't going to have a brown and pink quilt, so when we got to the shop I started pulling out the brightest fabrics I could lay my hands on.




I distinctly remember my mum being a bit embarrassed at my bright fabric choices, but fortunately she went with my choices and we can home with a very colourful bundle of fabrics.




This quilt was made before we had rotary cutters and mats. It was all hand quilted by my mum.  Sadly it's faded quite a bit, despite never being left in direct sunlight.

a matching cushion

 My local quilt shop has been running classes to make a modern quilt very similar to this, which I find quite amusing. I like to tell myself that I was ahead of my time choosing solids like this.



9 comments:

margaret said...

A lovely quilt, see where you get you talents from solids really look great in a quilt but I do tend to avoid them as they do show any errors I have made. I am now adding them to the stash so hopefully will get more confident as I go along the quilting road

Oops-Lah said...

Beautiful! It's amazing how modern Amish quilts are.

Val's Quilting Studio said...

I especially like the quilted suns in the the corners...

Serena @ Sewgiving said...

Absolutely way ahead of the curve there! I really love the sun pattern hand quilted into every block too :)

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

so often "modern" just means using newly designed fabric and an old pattern that "they" have now called modern! I don't know how many times I pick up a quilting magazine now or a book and they have old patterns in it that they call modern - and the only reason I can think of is the fabric that they use? Love your quilt

Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl said...

I think it is lovely and I really love how the sun was quilted into each block. :)

Granny Maud's Girl said...

How nice to have a quilt made for you instead of by you!
I think my fabric choices and preferences have changed a lot more than yours over the decades. I cannot see any signs of fading colours in the photos. They must have been really bright to start with.

HeathersSewingRoom said...

So interesting to see one of your early quilts as it is so similar to the one I made when I first started quilting as I was taught by an American lady that was very passionate about the Amish. A perfect choice of colours.

Vicki said...

This beauty was quite racy for its time! It is wonderful.