Nanna's Quilt

This quilt – essentially a Christmas-themed quilt from a pattern in Quilter’s Companion – was my first properly finished quilt. I made it for my maternal grandmother, Nanna for Christmas in 2002.

Quilted in the ditch at the time, as I’d no idea how to quilt it otherwise, it still stands out as one of my favourite quilts to make. Not just because it was for my beloved grandmother – and I was delighted to learn that she took such great enjoyment out of it – but because the colours, shades, fabric all just seemed to click together.

The border fabric was of lustrous red apples, bluest of blueberries and green leafy foliage, quite good for a fabric from Spotlight, which has sadly seems to have lost its great range of affordable and variety of quilting fabrics since then. The blocks are simple 9-square ‘Ohio Star’ blocks, which I’ve used again in other quilts due to their effective simplicity.

My grandmother passed away some 6 months after she received the quilt and the quilt has since returned to my possession, but I take comfort in the fact that she was able to witness my newfound skill with the very first quilt I made.

How it came to be

A brief backtrack on how I got hooked on this crazy thing called quilting.

Back in 2002, I was still living at home with my parents since shifting back from university in 2000. At that time I was in my early 20s, and my mother, frustrated about my lack of having something to do, suggested I get a hobby – specifically, a crafting one, perhaps. So, trawling through her craft/embroidery magazines, I came across quilting, found an ad for a local shop that did beginner courses in patchwork and quilting, booked in for classes and away I went.

Coming along for the ride was my (yet-to-be-realised) trusty Bernina sewing machine which Mum had sensibly rescued from my old high school for about $50, and which had sat on my bedroom floor for some time (prior to using it, I'd half-heartedly thought, "maybe, one day..."). Dusting it out, and decking myself with some sewing materials I thought I might need, I began my first class.

The beginners class was a Sampler class – essentially, we’d learn how to cut, piece and sew all different types of blocks, then join them together to produce a sampler quilt. Learning imperial measurements took some getting used to (1/4 inch!) although in retrospect, it makes so much sense (quilting measurements in metric seem so alien). I finished the class with a bit of knowledge, some new skills and a crazy addiction to this old-fashioned hobby. I was hooked!

I’ve never finished that first quilt – the sampler (above) in blue and yellow and cream – but I’ve finished many more, and I’ll tell their stories as I go.

Welcome!

This is a blog to discuss my quilts: designs, progress, past and present creations. And any other crafty bits and pieces that I come across along the way.