The start of a great hobby...

Seven years ago my friends Sylvia and Susan asked me if I wanted to go to a Block of the Month meeting with them. The idea of quilting sounded fun but I did not know if if was something I could do. I had went to a 4H club when I was a girl and had made a dress for myself. And I had taken home economics classes where I also made some things for myself. I had sewn several things for myself. But it had seemed like lately that patterns just were not right. Either they were too small or too big, and honestly I was getting tired of putting so much work into something only to find it did not even fit me. So I thought that maybe this quilting thing was the thing for me. I would be able to sew but would not have to worry about it fitting. So i said sure, well I had no idea what I was in for. The way that Block of the Month works is that you pay $6.00 for the first kit. Kit includes pattern for that months block and pieces of fabric for you to cut the pieces out of for the block. Then every month if you bring your block back to the meetings each month - finished - then you do not have to pay for the next block. So I started out. "One block a month, I can do this," I thought. Well it was very challenging at first. Luckily my friend Sylvia had me come to her house and watch her as she cut out her pieces and sew them together. I am a visual learner so this was very helpful. Anyway there were a few months that were very difficult and I just cried and thought, "there is no way I can do this." Well I just plugged away at it and have been doing it ever since. Above is my very first BOM quilt.

This one to the left is my Second year of BOM quilt. I loved the fabrics that I picked to put it together. I love the color combination. As you can tell my the next quilt that I am showing today. This is actually the very last quilt that I have put together. It is a lap quilt. It is from blocks from the 3rd year of quilting. Oh and truthfully I did not make every block here - my husband also quilts and he made the first two blocks and then his schedule changed and he could not longer go to the meetings. Well the colors that I was working on that year were blue and yellow. I ended up giving those quilt blocks to my Mom. Who made a quilt. Anyway so I needed a project to work on so I picked out these fabrics to put these "Thimbleberries" BOM's together.
There have been a few more that I have made and I will see if I can get photos. Oh I have given a couple away so I do not have photos of all the quilts I have made. I am going to do better about getting photos of the quilts I make. When you make a quilt you really get attached to it. I think it is because of all the time and effort that goes into making a quilt. It is a lot of work but well worth it. Now that I make quilts myself, I can totally understand why homemade quilts are so expensive... There is ALOT of work put into them.

I have some BOM blocks that were done in civil war fabrics that I am working on putting together now. Well, actually I am in the process of cutting out ALL the pieces to put the quilt together. There is a lot of work just cutting out all the sashings and fabric to put the quilts together. It will be a while before it is done. I have a few little projects that I am working on. Like some place mats. I will show them when they are done. Oh and by the way..I am not the typical quilter by any means. My work is NOT perfect. I try really hard to do a good job but it just does not come out that way. So I like to believe that my mistakes - make my quilts - uniquely mine.