Wednesday, December 21, 2016

First Quilt Ever---Finished


Here she is, in all her glory...the first quilt I ever pieced, finally finished.  No. I didn't start quilting like a month ago.  It's time for one of my favorite things...


Time to pull the skeleton quilts of of the closet and air my dirty little quilting secret.  I, Tish N. Wonderland had never finished the first quilt I pieced.  How does that even happen???  Well, let me tell you.

Once upon a time, there lived a girl and she loved to cross stitch.  She started out with small projects and taught herself as she went along.  She spent many hours enjoying the mindless and satisfying task of moving the needle up and down over linen, creating small colorful x's to create beautiful works of thread art.


One day, she ran across a series of patterns called Wedding Herbs and fell madly in love with the beautiful colors.  There were 12 (it might have been 8) total different herbs.


To have all of them together would take up some major wall space, so one day she said to herself, "why couldn't someone turn all of these into a quilt, where they could be displayed together??"

So bravely she loaded them up and headed to the local quilt shop to seek the advice of the knowledgeable quilters and see if any would take on this project for her.  Alas, they all said, "No, you do not want to do that.  That just would not work.  Frame them, that is what you should do."  Feeling defeated and ready to start the trek back home (ok, jump in the car and drive 4 blocks) she started to leave.  When the shop owner said, "Wait!  I have an idea.  Why not learn to make a quilt, then tackle the project yourself?"  

The shop owner quickly whisked her off talking about patterns, seam allowances, rotary cutters and something call fat quarters?  Her head was spinning, she was feeling motivated, encouraged even! What was this spell that had been cast on her??  With a swipe of the debit card, she left the shop with 20 fat quarters, a rotary cutter, a ruler and a Turning Twenty pattern and most importantly, a look of "what the hell just happened" on her face.

One night a week she traveled to the magical fabric shop and was guided on her quest of quilt piecing.  A few weeks later, before her, lay one completed queen sized Turning Twenty quilt.  The shop owner then sent the top of to the enchanted long arm quilter and two weeks later, with tears of happiness she had in her possession one quilted quilt top!  Magic!


Umm..okay?  Now what?  Binding?  No one mentioned that???  So after much reading about the process, the girl quickly packed up her top and locked it away in a rubber made tote until the day it would be set free by a binding fairy and completed.

So what did the girl do?  With the top locked away, she boxed up all her cross stitch supplies, bought more fabric and apparently pieced 23 more quilt tops that are still laying around.  Sigh.

That is until now.  After ten years of hiding, the top started calling to her once again..."Bind me.  Bind me."  And so she did.


So now the girl and the quilt shall live happily ever after.  Snuggling together on those long cold winter nights ahead, thus completing her quilting journey and freeing her from the spell.  THE END.

Just kidding, once you drink the quilting kool aid we all know your addicted for life.  But seriously, if feels AMAZING to have this queen sized monkey off my back, and allows me to mark another goal off my 4th quarter list...aka finish a UFO.  Hey, it counts.





I was just responding to emails and Katrin over at Now What Puppilalla? had a fun idea.  Since I am looking at reducing my UFO and quilt kit piles over the next year, maybe I'll I post my top 3 contenders or choose at random and let you guys help me decide what to work on.  Any one game for that?


Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social.

20 comments:

Lara B. said...

And a beautiful tale of falling in love with quilting it is Tish, LOL.
You did such lovely cross stitching! And it seems to me that they surely could be made into a quilt.
I love your first quilt and now that it is finished, it looks perfect for cuddling up in. The long arm quilter did a very nice pattern on it too.
We'd love to help you decide which UFO to tackle next. Bwah ah ah!

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

I love hearing about how quilters get started quilting, and hooray for the binding fairy being found and getting this one finished. And not just any binding - it's a fancy flanged binding. :)

Puppilalla said...

I help voting on projects to tackle =) ... obviously

Bernie Kringel said...

First off, this is such a sweet story about your introduction to this crazy obsession. I'm glad that UFO called to you and is now finished. It is so pretty and deserves to be used. I look forward to seeing you work your way through this stack of quilt tops. How wonderful each finish will feel! Great project for 2017. I wonder how many of them you can complete?

Jen said...

What a fun story. And what a fantastic feeling to finish that first quilt. Now it can be used and loved and have a great tale to go with it.
UFO voting?!? Count me in. I might have to do the same thing. I would love to go through my UFO bin and reintroduce them to the world.

Julie said...

Tish's Adventures in Wonderland's Origin of Species. This would be the 'missing link' or sorts? I'm so glad you got it done, and now you deserve to enjoy it!

I also have some darling oldies on my shelf, and the current plan is one a month starting with the earliest. Some are hysterical, really. Yup, that many live together right now. The thing is with some of the really early quilts we make...they don't even look like they belong to us anymore. The evolution of our work is an amazing journey, and I'm so glad to be a part of the magic with you. ;-)

Nancy J said...

I hope you have saved this,complete with the photos, and maybe this is the first chapter of your book. I laughed, I almost had tears, but the best way to know when a story is really good, is to imagine yourself right there. I did!!! Love that binding, a perfect finish to a beautiful quilt.

Stitchin At Home said...

I love your tale of how you came to be a quilter, what an enjoyable post from start to finish.I have the first quilt I made with all it's imperfections, yours looks spectacular Tish. Enjoy cuddling with it you deserve it.

Janice Holton said...

Tish, this was a great story, with a great finish. Congrats on being able to check off a UFO! UFO voting would be fun!

Lisa J. said...

Awesome that you finished this Tish. Your accomplishments never cease to amaze me.

Karen said...

Tish, this tale was so cute! Very cleverly written! But please tell, what did you do with the wedding herbs? I couldn't tell if they ended up in the quilt or not.

Afton Warrick said...

I love that you are giving "Quilting Confessions". It's awesome that you brought this one into the light.

Brenda said...

This was such an enchanting post; it was wonderful reading your story about how your adventure in quilting began! It is a lovely quilt with such superb binding! I am new to your blog and look forward to reading more of your posts. Thank you for sharing and have a fantastic creative day!

Erin Quinn said...

Tish, this totally counts!! You have a finish!!! Huzzah!!! And it's cool to have your first quilt finished and in use. I know mine gives me a little happy smile every time we use it, even though it's not as pretty as my subsequent makes.
Congrats!!!
E xx

Vicki in MN said...

Congrats on that finish-how satisfying that must feel!! Yep you indeed have been biten by the bug, or drank the quilting koolaide!

Lorna McMahon said...

Your binding fairy made a beautiful choice! What a perfect finish and an enjoyable read! Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas, Tish. And happily looking forward to spending 2017 with you and your "soon to be previous UFO" projects!

Jennifer Fulton Inquiring Quilter said...

Tish, this was a wonderful story! And I think I may finally have inspiration for a new linky party. I've been looking for something unique ever since I finally signed up for Inlinks and I think I've got it, thanks to you. (More later)

It took me about 5 to 6 years to finish my first quilt. Like you, I had no idea what I was doing and soon got discouraged. Having drunk the quilter's kool-aid though, I didn't stop making quilts. Instead, I made quilts I could finish and eventually I returned to my first quilt and finished it. What a great feeling! I'm so happy for you!

Emily said...

I love the way you tell stories, Tish! I'm glad you finally got this one finished. It looks great! Enjoy the well-earned snuggles!

Ruth said...

I haven't finished my first piecing either but it is now in a finished flimsy form so thats a start! Congrats on the finish!

Cheryl said...

I love this story and am impressed that you made a queen sized quilt as your first quilt! I like the idea of getting to vote on your UFO, that fun!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...