A Quilt or two

You know, I just realized that here I've been blogging for a while under the name 'The Quilter' and I haven't ever shown you a quilt. I'm here to rectify that matter. My first quilt was a version of this quilt from this magazine. The year was 1977. The fabrics available were not cotton. I remember that I used a gold, dark blue (almost navy), red and lime green (although in those days it was called chartreuse). I used a cotton/poly mix that was heavy on the polyester. Anyway, I made this thing and proceeded to quilt it. I had read that one should quilt from the center out. I can't even remember if I basted the thing or not. Probably not. Trying to shove that needle through that polyester fabric and polyester batting just about did me in. After getting that big empty area in the center quilted with toe grabbers, I gave up and, leaving that quilting in, tied the rest of that sucker. And then gave it away. No picture.

What I do have is a picture of my second quilt. This quilt was started by my step-grandmother. I inherited the melon shaped blocks. It took me 5 tries to draft the center sections of the rings but I think I did well. What I didn't do well was the border. You know, through the center and not the edges. I was young and stupid and didn't know how to measure for a border.. Yep, you can see the wave at the bottom of the quilt. Overall, though, I like what I did with the stencil and paint. I used the same stencil as a quilting pattern. This hangs in my studio behind me and the sewing machine. You can see the edge of the bookcase with my small CD player. The speakers are hung on the wall and the hanging rod for the quilt is across the top of the speakers.