My first quilt is long gone. It was a 6 pointed star applique completed in the summer of 1969 when I was in 7th grade. My mother sent me to the lady up the block to learn to quilt. Her plan was to get my mind off a certain boy I liked.

I went steady with that boy until senior year, but here I am quilting 40 years later.

On a crazy little note--my sister just connected with that lady's oldest son through Facebook. When she heard I was still quilting, she was delighted.

Here is my first quilt, Sunny Windows. The story: during the early days of my separation and divorce I decided I needed to get away when my ex had our boys for the weekend (he often brought them home to me if it wasn't "convenient" to have them the entire weekend). One weekend I went up to the NC mountains and toured the Folk Art Center outside Asheville. They have lots of pottery, woodworking, weaving, metalwork, and quilts there. I saw an Attic Window quilt with yellow squares instead of black (attic) or red (hearth) and just fell in love with the quilt. So I came home and made my own version with the help of my Georgia Bonesteel quilting book. I did not know that this pattern was considered "difficult" because of the Y seam, I just went ahead and made it anyway. Why I chose to round the outer corners....I don't know -- wish I had not done that.

My boys and I used the quilt for years to cover up while watching TV on the sofa. Now it hangs behind my bed in my bedroom.

This picture is actually my second quilt made in about 1980. Second daughter who was hyperactive and into everything had just started nursery school. I would work on it while she was gone and then have to put everything away when she came home. I would pour through quilt magazines looking for pictures of blocks that could be divided into 9 squares. (I didn't know the term 9-patch). Then I would draft templates on the back of cereal boxes and cut them out every which way to get the most out of the fabric. Never heard of bias edges either. It has minimal hand quilting on it and the knots stick out on the back. I used the hem from some old curtains to make a hangar for the back and it hung on my LR wall for at least five years. I was very proud of that quilt.

Actually my first quilt was a rail fence that I made for my oldest daughter when she was two. She just turned 32 and still has it. It was machine quilted in a diagonal pattern with no walking foot so you can imagine how puckered and messy it is.

I don't and I'm glad I don't. It would be a terrible embarrassment.

It was 12" squares -- JUST squares -- knotted at the intersections. It was American flag red, white and blue and I can't remember what design I tried to create with the layout.

I have no idea what happened to it. I suppose I just abandoned it when we sold everything we couldn't put in backpacks and moved to France after college.

My next forays into piecing were making cotton patches for my husband's jeans. First pinwheels, then a Star of Bethlem, some appliquéed pieces and some embroidered patches. THOSE JEANS I'd proudly display but, like the quilt, they're gone. I'd love to know what happened to them, tho.

Here's my 1st quilt,lap size, made with Walmart fabric on an old Kenmore.The 2nd quilt,K size, was also made using scissors & cardboard templates.

The lapsize was tacked on corners & the 2nd was sent to a LA quilter.Now,I'm about done making bedsize quilts & concentrating on smaller wall hangings.

Here is a link that might be useful: webshots

This is my first quilt. I took a bargello class and decided instead of what the teacher was teaching, I would do one of my own design. It was 2008 and won first place in the beginner quilts category at our local show.

Jackie

I love this thread. Haven't we all come a long way?

I have no pictures of my first quilt, which we completely wore out years ago. I do remember making it out of 4" blocks in jewel tones. I was hugely pregnant with our first child (so it had to be either December of 1982 or early January of 1983) when I tied it. I didn't have a frame so I laid it out on the living room floor and scooted around on my bum to tie it.

Yes...I remember fondly those days of scooting around on my bum pinning or tying a quilt sandwich together. Now if I got down on the floor on my bum I don't think I could get up again, LOL!

I don't have a picture, but mine was also Quilt-in-a-Day Log Cabin. My oldest DD was a year old in 1990 and my Bible study teacher worked in a quilt shop. She offered to teach anyone who wanted to learn, how to make a log cabin baby blanket. So on a Saturday, in 3 hours, me and another gal had put together 9 log cabin blocks - enough for a baby blanket. I gave it away to a friend who was having a baby. That was when I learned about rotary cutters, boards and rulers. I've never taken another class, but have been hooked ever since.
Karlene

I don't have a picture but I made it for my Grandson and his name was Jacob so I made a Jacob's ladder. Everyone thought I did well with it,he is now 16/ I haven't done any quilting again except last year and can't leave it alone.

I don't have a picture of it, but the first quilty thing I did was a placemat at a quilting class. It was even hand quilted.....big stitches. It's been at least 30 years, but I think it's around here somewhere.

Sharon

This is my very first quilt; made in the late 1980s. It shows how little I knew that I started with a giant mariners compass and a queen bed size quilt! What was I thinking?!? It's even worse: I didn't have a pattern! I planned this on graph paper. It came out fairly flat but is far from perfect.

I made one horrible mistake with it. I used the spray adhesive to stick the backing on while I quilted it and it ended up all puckery in the back. I'll never use that stuff again! I've learned much better ways to keep the backing smooth since then.

Kate

I think all these first-timer pictures are awesome!!!!

Sharon

My first quilt was Ohio stars made completely out of flannel for a baby quilt. I don't really have any pictures, and I don't really want to see that again! Lots of puckers, and I did not know how to work with the stretchy, thick flannel and my sewing machine was rebelling. The colors were pretty, but the thing weighed a ton. The baby lived in the south, so they couldn't really use it, LOL.

I don't have any photos of my early quilts - it just never occurred to me to photograph them, LOL. My piecing was quite good, since I'd been sewing for years, but I do remember that my quilting was mostly just straight line crosshatching back then.

My first quilt i made in the 70's .My BFF and i each did one,"we used Double knits,What did we know"?? We just knew we had all these scraps of fabric and we both knew how to sew as we made all ours and our kids clothing.It was tied,not quilted and wore like iron,and was used all the time.It finally ended up in the back of my oldest sons car as a beach blanket,for a few more years.Unfortunately i don't have a picture of it.
Then in the beginning of the 80's i took a class from eleanor burns when she was just getting started and teaching in churches and stores.I made my #1 GS a log cabin quilt.I do have pictures of it,but they are buried in one of my photo albums,and i don't know which one.And as they say,the rest is history.
I've taken several more classes fromEleanor Burns and others over the years.
Kathi

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This is the first quilt I made it is lap size. My Mil was a great quilter so I made it to impress her. She made very few appliqued quilts.

This is the first quilt that I made. I took a beginner class and did a sampler with different techniqes all by hand except the center seam for the backing. We used cardboard templates and were limited to the no. of fabrics we could use. As I finished all my blocks before the end of the class they used mine as an example to hand bast on the old type pole frame that rested on the backs of chairs. A good thing or I probably would never have finished it. I hand quilted it taking several years to complete. I gave it to my DD a few years ago.

I made several handquilted "quilter friendly" panel baby quilts before I actually pieced what I consider my first quilt. My son wanted a quilt made similar to a 2"x2" picture we saw in Quilter's newsletter magazine.The picture was a square wall hanging so I took that 2x2 picture my LQS and picked out 20+ colors of Kona cotton solids but had NO idea how much I needed so I got at least 1 yard of each!! (I am STILL using some of that fabric!) I found a pattern and started sewing after I cut all those fabric strips (yep, rotary cut). It is the size of a twin sized bedspread so it hangs down over the side of the bed. I hand quilted using black thread (on black fabric ... yikes!) Each black triangle has a pattern quilted into it as well as a stitch-by-the-ditch along each color strip! After 10 years the black Kona cotton has faded and the cotton quilting thread is breaking but it is still a really warm quilt to cuddle with. He's moved out and the quilt is still here because his grandma has made the queen sized bedspread quilt for him now.

{{!gwi}}
Sue/polardream

I have no pictures of my first quilt. I made it when I was maybe 19. It was a nine patch, using scraps of clothes my mom had made. I must not have made the seams wide enought because eventually it frayed and then I think I did a little zig zag over the seams. Eventually, the batting all shifted. I saved a little piece of it for a memory. I also made one of double knit scraps. Nice and heavy. Good memories, thanks for sharing. Deanna