My First Quilt (Block)

I’ve been wanting to dabble in quilting for some time. I figure, I like sewing, I like blankets, I might just like sewing blankets, no?

My original intention was to take a quilting class. Apparently, everyone who wants to take a quilting class is either experienced or retired, since many shops don’t offer beginner classes (WEIRD!), and the few that did offered them during the day, while I’m at work at my 9 to 5 office job. No matter, I’ll just do it myself! Who needs a quilting class when I’ve got YouTube and tons of awesome quilting blogs (not to mention a few books about it)?

After some courage wrangling and plenty of reading, watching, planning, and dinking around with EQ5, I dove right in. Lots of painstakingly careful measuring, cutting, pinning, pressing, ironing, and sewing ensued.

Behold: My first quilt block

It’s not pressed yet in that photo, but the seams match perfectly! I’m quite chuffed. That, and rotary cutting (wow! those things are super sharp) was what kept me from just going for it in the first place.

I’m using the Children’s Delight block pattern, with a few modifications. Mainly, I changed the color placement, and used the same color for the corner blocks as for the focus block. Also, I’m using three different focus fabrics. And I made it bigger…roughly queen sized. It will be 9 x 11 blocks, for a total of 99 blocks. I currently have 18, only 81 to go!

I’ll probably dedicate some significant time to it this weekend, and see if I can’t get half of my blocks pieced. Then I have to piece the sashing, and do the border, and baste, and quilt, and bind, and I’m not sure if I’m in over my head yet or not! God, grant me peace, patience, and a well-behaved sewing machine.