I'm Hand Sewing a Quilt

Are you one of those people who need to read the instructions on everything? Picture me raising my hand in agreement. I wasn’t always like that. For example, when I was a teenager back in my native Jamaica, I decided that I wanted to make a patchwork quilt. I got some scraps from my aunt who was a dressmaker, got a needle, some thread and I just got to work. It never occurred to me that I’d need a pattern. Duh? Anyway I used the cloth scraps in any shape they were cut in. And in any size they were cut in. And I also didn’t just use cotton fabric. Basically I just grabbed a piece of fabric, looked to see where it would best fit and sewed it in place.

Another thing that didn’t occur to me then was that I had to sew a backing on the quilt. Not only that, it also had to have filling. What did I know? I was a teenager and I was bored and I saw that my aunt really enjoyed sewing so, I got to sewing. So here I am many years later, no, I’m not going to tell you how many, I have this unfinished quilt. I have to tell you too that, well my design was off so I had to cut it get it to look like, well a quilt. This is truly a patchwork quilt.

I did make it by hand. And I looked at my handiwork and if I do say so myself I did a pretty good job for not knowing what I was doing. Picture me patting myself on my back, well shoulder.

So now I’m making my “first” quilt top. This time before I started I actually went to the library and picked out several books on quilting. As I tend to feel easily overwhelmed I searched for a pattern that was easy even for me. I came across a quilt pattern called Rail Fence. According to my reading this is a great quilt for beginners. Sounds easy enough. So off to the fabric store I went. Just my luck they were having a sale! I spent quite a while choosing the fabric colors. In the end I picked 6 colors that I think would go well together plus one each for the trim and the background.

Back home I got out the cutting instructions. Who knew that there was a special way to cut fabric? Anyway, I must’ve read it a hundred times before I figured out what they were talking about. Can you believe that they had different instructions depending on whether your fabric was 45” wide or 58” – 60” wide? And they mentioned terms like salvage edge.

No, I haven’t finished the quilt top yet, but I do have fabrics listed for sale in my eBay store. So please click on the link to visit my store at: Lorna’s Re-Use It Decor