Heh...I decided to try the blog writing challenge from Cheryl Sleboda of Muppin.com . Let's see if I can keep it up - every day for the entire month. Probably more posts than the whole rest of the year!
The first prompt is Introduction. OK - Hang on to your hats and glasses - we are in for a wild ride!
I had gone to a Craft Show with a few of my friends. I was not a quilter - yet. We went to a demo of the Jodi Barrows 'Square in a Square' ruler because my quilter friend noticed the class was about getting Perfect Points.
The lady demo-ing this ruler was so fun. She did the demo and then asked "Why would someone cut up perfectly good fabric into tiny squares, just to sew it back together again?" The answer she said was "Why, to make it more beautiful"...that made perfect sense to me. So when she asked if anyone in the audience thought they could use this ruler - you set it down on the block by lining it up on the seams and whack off what sticks out, I kind of said under my breath "I think I could do that", my friends all turned towards me, like I had grown a new head or something and were totally amazed.
We trooped over to the vendor booth right after the demo and all three of my friends bought the ruler. I was still a bit on the fence - but my friends said we could share the ruler at a Craft Day - we periodically would meet at one or the other's houses to indulge in Crafting.
One friend had a sewing room that all of us could meet in. I went to Walmart, Husband G helped me pick out three fabrics, I took my hither-too unused sewing machine down to her big sewing room and they taught me how to use the rotary cutter and how to use my machine and how to chain piece.
I got a good bit done at that first meeting - went home, co-op'ed the kitchen table, worked like a dog and had the quilt quilted by the next weekend when a couple of us got together to go Christmas Shopping - I was the first one of the group done. And that is how I became a quilter!
My Mom bought me my own Square in a Square ruler for Christmas that year.
It's a neat ruler...those points are Pointy! and Perfect!
I still use this quilt. It's had to have the binding replaced and some of the quilting has popped, but it is a favorite. There is so much that I still had to learn about how to start and stop quilting and about burying thread tails. And how to measure borders - I just laid the fabric up against the center - hence the kind of 'friendly' waves in the outer border. I did the most difficult quilting for a beginner to try - stitch in the ditch. I dived right in!
I backed it with fleece so it is very cuddly. The original pattern on the ruler had the star points alternating colors, but I decided to make them match. And the size for the original pattern was just a wall hanging but I knew if I didn't make something I could use, I would not want to continue quilting, so I figured out how much extra fabric I needed to make it couch quilt sized - and bought extra just in case! (Turned out I needed the extra red for the replacement binding)
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