My First Quilt Attempt

I've always LOVED quilts!  I had a fake one on my bed as a child.  It was quilted, but it was a printed piece of material with baskets of tulips all over it...no applique going on there.  So...I've always fantasized about making one.  I have quilting magazines, books, patterns....but I know myself....big projects seldom get finished.  When the opportunity came up to take a FREE quilting class I thought...why not...maybe with a little motivation!  I had the choice to make a table runner with basic square blocks surrounded by a strip boarder or the Dresden Plate appliqued pattern wall hanging...let's just dive right in and applique!  I have some material scraps (always have some fat quarters on hand for cross-stitch pillow/pincushion backing) and I made a visit to my local fabric/craft store.  They have matching fabric bundles all ready for quilting projects and "jelly rolls" and "charms"...pre-cut shapes...isn't that cheating?!  Let's shoot for Christmas!  With one bundle of coordinating fabric and a couple fat quarters I already had...I began:

 Got my basic Dresden Plate all cut out and arranged on my center fabric...ready to hand applique!  Cut all my little triangles out and stitched them together on my ancient Singer which was bought used in the mid 70's...still hanging in there!  (My Daddy built the sewing machine cabinet for me...years ago!)

 It's all put together...ready for the quilting part!!!   Well...actually, there is supposed to be one more strip boarder with contrasting squares at the corners, but I've decided to stop here and make it a pillow instead of a wall hanging.  It's laying on a plain quilt that I bought about 5 years ago that I was going to embroider on....someday...maybe...probably not.  I have so much respect and awe for quilters...such patience and perseverance!  What a HUGE project to do a bed-size quilt!!!  I will continue to dream about quilts, but I don't think there will be any bed-size quilts being made here...maybe crib-size for that "grandchild hope chest"!