Let me
preface this by saying I can actually sew in a straight line. Learnt that one
years ago in Fashion College. I can also cut, count, match up bits with other
bits, unpick, resew, iron, style colours, hem, cut and sew bias, pleat, sew a
zipper, make button holes and myriad other sewing-related activities.
I cannot,
however, add up very well. At least in situations where it matters that
everything actually adds up.
Making my
first quilt brought this deeply buried secret of shame to the surface.
If I am
honest it is no doubt why I failed the patternmaking module of fashion design.
Well, I didn’t actually fail at all, but I may as well have. I don’t remember A
THING. Not ONE SINGLE THING. Apart from sepia tinted memories of pencils, brown
paper and rulers…I've retained nothing. From memory I was far better at draping. You
know, where you make it up as you go along….?
You see this
is how Sarah (my sister in law and sometimes teacher) lulls me into a false sense of security. By tapping into my ‘make
it up as you go along’ mentality. She tells me that quilting is ‘easy’ once you
get the knack of it. She also tells me it is very ‘freeflowing’ suggesting you
can design, create and change it as you go.
While this
may be true and many of you seasoned quilters may agree – let’s face it – all those
little squares, triangles, strips and other weird and wonderful pieces have to
actually match up, meet at the corners, have seam allowance added and still fit
a queen bed exactly.
Before I go
any further, I have a confession to make. I have actually made a quilt before.
About 3 years ago for my godson’s christening. Is it fair to say I don’t count
this one because I didn’t really like the colours? I believe this is in part
because I had to choose boy ones. Sounds crazy, I know, but if you knew me, you
would be utterly unsurprised by that considering I carried around my plastic
Barbie tote complete with strawberry flavoured lip gloss and scratch off nail polish
from the age of 3. I like girlie colours, so sue me! Although if I am really
honest it was because the only gender neutral fabric I could lay my hands on had
clowns all over it, and clowns frighten the life out of me! I also don’t really
consider it my first quilt because I didn’t attach the wadding or quilt it
myself and I cheated and sewed the binding on by machine because I ran out of
time.
So, with that
out of the way let me continue to tell you about my ‘first quilt-making
experience’.
My little
goddaughter Izzy is getting christened in a couple of weeks and I wanted to do
something really special for her. Something she can have forever and know how
much I love her and how honoured I feel to be her god mother. I truly believe
nothing is more special than receiving a gift that has been lovingly made by
hand.
After heading
out to the fabric shop with the SIL and buying a tonne of other things I
probably don’t need, I settled on 3 main fabrics. Izzy’s mum likes quite modern
colours, so I thought the purple and aqua combo would be perfect and something
a little different to your usual pink and white. Of course I had to include cupcakes.
Equipped with
my fabrics and a positive attitude I headed off to Kangaroo Valley for the
weekend. For those of you who don’t know where this is, it is about 1.5hrs
drive from Sydney and is basically really lush green beautiful countryside.
With plenty of divine little coffee shops, sweetie factories and antique
dealers along the way. We hire a gorgeous cottage down there once a year and go
with my husband, his sister (Sarah) and her husband Damian. The weekend
comprises of feasting and drinking. I usually bring my beading forest (see
below) and Sarah her quilts.
This time, I commandeered the sewing machine
knowing it was my one chance to get this thing done with private tuition. After
that, I would be on my own and knew it would sit in my studio until I managed
to steal some of Sarah’s time again!
In an attempt
to prevent your interest waning, I will not go into minute detail on how I
progressed. Let me just recount some of the highs and lows. Like running out of
fabric for my border and having to steal some of SIL’s (it’s that lovely dark
purple with bright pink spot around the border). Finishing the top and noticing
every single corner of those pesky squares actually matched up in the middle.
Finding out you don’t have to backstitch at all during quilting. Finding out
finishing the top didn’t mean the rest of the quilt would take me 5 mins.
Making the back of the quilt (yes, I realise this is the ‘easy part’) was,
well, interesting to say the least. This is where I really came unstuck.
My
dysfunctional relationship with numbers reared its ugly head. The thing is – I knew
what I had to do. I had it all planned out. Knew what lengths I needed to cut……so
I went ahead and cut the wrong lengths, didn’t I?
Ugh!
I absolutely
uncategorically blame this on the fact that quilting fabric comes folded
selvedge to selvedge. What is that all about?! It’s confusing for those of us
that have always handled dressmaking fabric and are used to just cutting
pieces, not strips if we fold it. The irritating thing is I had actually laid
the fabric out unfolded and then folded it again because I thought it would be ‘the
proper quilting way’ to cut. So I cut the side with the fold at the right
length as I knew it would double out and cut the other the same, thinking it
would double out. Of course it wouldn’t because it doesn’t have a fold!
Ugh!
After this latest
emotion dissipated, I stared at my piece of paper. Made some doodles. Frowned.
Sighed. Insisted to Sarah I didn’t need any help. Did some more doodles.
Relented and asked Sarah for help. She did some doodles. Sighed a bit. Wondered
what I had done. Did some more doodles. Suggested a solution.
Which I
tried. Only to find there still wasn’t enough fabric.
Back to the
doodles. The calculator. More sighing until…..woo hoo! I managed to make it
fit!
Hastily I
made for the machine in case somehow these pieces managed to make themselves
not fit again just to irritate me. I sewed them all together then ah – relief –
it worked!
What a
satisfying feeling. I rewarded myself with a glass of wine. It’s important to
do so, don’t you think?
I am not
going to go into any further detail about finishing it all off, as it actually
all went pretty well and will make for tedious reading. So I will wind it up
here. I will say, however, that if you were at all interested in the pattern
I’d love you to email me and I am sure I can squeeze it out of Sarah. I
might even be able to put together some ‘beginner instructions for beginners’
where I explain absolutely everything that other quilters find obvious.
There’s nothing like a true beginner to give you the basics!
After reading
my little account I do hope you will feel encouraged, not disheartened to
embark on your own project of this kind. In hindsight, Sarah was right. Making
a quilt (well, a basic one) actually is a relatively easy thing to achieve,
even if you have very limited sewing skills.
This quilt
was all about straight lines and corners. Cut in a straight line, sew it
straight, match up the corners and you will be ok…..promise. Apart from some
back-breaking basting, you will be fine!
The challenge
for me is staying interested enough to carry a project through to completion.
This is why I admire you seasoned professionals out there. Quilting truly is a
timeless, tireless tradition; one that requires dedication, good technique and
a whole lot of love.
Despite the emotional ride, this quilt is at the very least full of the latter.
CCxo
