I finished my first quilt in 1976. This quilt is made from the scraps of clothes that my mother made for us when we were young. It also has left over fabrics from the first clothes that my sisters and I made for ourselves in 4-H.
That black fabric with the yellow stripes was the fabric I used in my very first clothing project when I was 9.
My sisters and I had a set of matching dresses and shorts that our mother made for us in 1973 out of that blue fabric with the red and white birds. That's me on the right.
Page 9 in the book shows a photo of the three of us modeling out 4-H garments in 1975 those fabrics are in there too - the upper left two in the quilt photo.
I remember taking my cardboard template and tracing around it with a ball point pen and cutting out all of those squares. It was an evening activity while watching The Waltons or The Rockford Files on TV. I pinned about every half inch and used a LOT of pins. To get the quilt the right size, I made a strip and added to it until it hung over the edge of my bed the amount that I wanted. I made more strips and added them as I went.
Here it is on my bed before it was quilted. My room was part of a home improvement project in our basement and we hadn't installed the carpet yet when this photo was taken. I was sure rockin' the rick rack on that top wasn't I? You can probably tell that was another hand made garment.
This first quilt has polyester batting and the backing is kettle cloth, a textured poly blend, that was turned to the front to cover the edge. I remember fussing to get the backing fabric folded into a neat miter on the corners.
I tell you, this quilt takes me back.
Over the coming weeks, I'll feature other quilts from my book, Every Last Piece.
You can purchase an autographed copy of the book from me here.
I can't compete with Amazon's low prices. But if you want to save a little and purchase from Amazon, please click here. This is an affiliate link and clicking through to purchase will allow me to earn a few extra pennies.
You can also ask your local quilt shop or book store to get the book for you.
