I took a quilting class about 30 years ago (boy has it really been that long), with my mom and sister. At that time, hand work was in vogue, so we learned to hand cut each piece, then hand sew and finally hand quilt. While I really enjoyed it, it just took sooo long to create a nice quilt. About that time, my son came along, so quilting got shoved in the closet and was soon forgotten. Then 2 years ago, after many years of moaning that I wanted to learn to machine quilt, my lovely husband bought me a new sewing machine (my old one had gotten lost somewhere along the line). I took a few classes, and have now found a new love. With "modern" techniques, like using rotary cutters to quickly cut multiple pieces, and machine piecing, it makes quick work of putting together a beautiful quilt. And the fabrics they have nowadays - absolutely stunning and quite a variety of colors, patterns and styles. I still hand quilt, because I enjoy handwork, and also I haven't gotten the hang of machine quilting yet! Any other quilters on board?? I'd love to discuss and share patterns, fabrics, techniques, and such.
Quilting has definitely been around for a while. My grandmother quilted beautifully, and was fast at it too. She would make scarfs and blankets for the family. Quilting will always be a traditional hobby, due to its calming traits. All those who come into contact or know of the practice can be calmed by admiring the tradition.
I am not a quilter currently, but I will share my mother completed some beautiful quilts, for all of us children (4 total). She did every stitch by hand. We counted (1) quilt as to the number of stitches in the entire quilt and based on (1) square, she stitched over 250,000 stitches for each quilt! Now that is a masterpiece from my perspective!
Quilting was always something I wanted to do but never got around to it. Now at my age, my desire has lessened and I doubt I would pursue it. I was big on crosstitch for many years but had to give that up because my eyes aren't as good as they used to be. I do envy people who create lovely quilts!
My grandmother actually got me started quilting, unaware that she was using reverse psychology.... I had seen my mother piecing together a quilt as a boy, she gave me some scraps and a needle and thread to try and granma told me that a man would never be able to sew as well as a woman. Since then I've used quilting for a lot of different projects beyond simply making quilts. (on another thread, I think home improvement, I put a picture of a chair seat I quilted). Never had the patience for hand quilting, have always done it on a machine. Perhaps back in the days when there was no television and no Internet, people had time to cut and hand sew old rags into beautiful bed covers; nowadays, I don't think I'd ever get around to finishing if I didn't use my sewing machine. By the way, my grandmother took back her words once she learned I worked in Broadway Theatre costuming (though in that job I didn't sew a stitch!).
I have seen some beautiful quilts in the second hand stores I search for treasures in. I am not a quilter, I don't have the patience to handle that many small pieces of material. I was taught by my mother to sew when I was a kid, I hated it, and would break the needles in the machine just so I did not have to sew anything. My mother is an excellent, very talented seamtress all self taughts and thought I should be as talented. When my youngest daughter was born she had some health issues which put a dent in the budget. I wanted to continue to dress in the fashion I liked and had another daughter to dress so I pulled out the sewing machne refreshed what my mother had taught me and made all of our clothes for years. I did not like sewing but I did notice that it claimed me and the finished product made me very proud. When I cut out a pattern I throw away all the little pieces that I don't need, no patience for small pieces.
One of the jobs I had was in a senior home and a few of the ladies had a quilting club. I was always amazed when the got out the old wooden frames and started working on those masterpieces. I don't know how they did it as they talked almost non-stop, but never about
I am a quilting beginner. I have made two simplistic quilts for my son by hand. I don't have a sewing machine and, at the time I made the quilts, was to see if I would complete each quilt and sew them well enough so they wouldn't fall apart within two weeks. However, I did not count on how soothing sewing buy hand would be for me. After pinning everything into place and deciding how I was going to handle the edges, I would sit in the living room while my son watched television or was on the computer and sew every evening. I found the activity soothed me and created a homey ambiance that I enjoyed.
I have made a couple of homemade quilts, one for my stepson's bed when he was a young teenager and one for my youngest daughter's bed when she was a teenager too. But my favorite quilts to make were quilts for babies. The last one I made for a baby was probably about 9 years ago. I wanted to make one for my new grandson coming in September, but my daughter has so many blankets, etc. already that she doesn't really need anymore. I never did follow any pattern...just always made up my own.
I feel such a need to achieve something, and I don't think it's going to be outside of my home for now. So I'm starting a quilt today. Just a beginner, so I will start with finding a couple of pieces, maybe more, of material I like. I guess that's the first step, selecting material, having some sort of pattern idea (squares/patchwork works for this beginner). Does anyone, or have you made a quilt? I find lots of tutorials as well, but I'd love to find out from folks I know here if possible. I do plan to use a sewing machine as much as possible. My hands have a tremor, and also some arthritis, just a little, but hard to sew by hand. Just the length of time it would take is enough to say no to a hand-stitched quilt, LOL! Anyway, I'll toss this out here and see if I catch anything denise PS if you've quilted, and have pics, please feel free to share them. I would love to see what you've created. Also, anything you find a pic of that you would like, or like to make
My idea for material/fabric is anything that looks like more vintage patterns, or my idea of vintage. I think of what would make me feel cozy. Here's one idea of fabric, although a lot of mine I expect to find at thriftstores. I want to hopefully, not have to many different fabrics. I'd like to make some sort of "design". This is necessarily the color etc. but I suppose the old wallpaper designs, as well as dress materials, you get the idea This one below isn't my fave of anything, but see how they use the same fabric in different places, using them over again to make a sort of pattern. That's what I want to do
I started this quilt before my mother passed away. After she passed I kind of lost my enthusiasum. It would fit a youth or twin size bed or could just be a throw blanket. All that is needed now is the batting and the undercovering. In the last photo the plain orange fabric is the undercovering. It is machine sewn. I cut the fabric squares. For the batting I will be using a twin size mattress cover minus the elastic edging.
I was on my phone texting so I couldn't answer real well Von, but I did want you to know that I think your work is awesome! I priced sewing machines, and there's a group I can get with if I want. I think I will stick to my own thing though, as I have a very, smart-at-quilting friend next door. She has so many beautiful things from tiny handmade/quilt like cards, to bedspreads. She's been doing it 13 years only, and she is 86!! So it's not to late to give it a go for me She's giving me some things I would have to buy because she has extra, but a few things I will buy to get started like a "cutting board" guess it's called, and scissors of course (those just for quilting as I have lots of scissors but all too dull, lol). I will make something small, like a doily size to start Saw lots of pretty material I like, but going to wait a bit. I want to have all I need to start before I pick out the material Thanks for sharing your pics @Von Jones so much
Hi @Denise Happyfeet , That is one of the best occupations that you can do in your own home, and you'll find yourself developing the most unusual patterns as your drifting off to sleep. That's when I can see patterns without a lot of thought. Here is my first attempt at quilting. It is about the size for a bassinet. As you can see, it took about the first 1/3 of the quilt before I figured out what I really wanted to do.