Wednesday, December 8, 2010

First Quilting Class


My first block!, originally uploaded by seamstosew.
I’ve been busy this week with my homework from my first class. I can already tell I’m hooked! We learned about picking out our light, medium, and dark fabric, and the scale of the fabric. I’m a bit worried that my quilt will have too many fabrics with a large scale, but I guess you have to learn as you go. We are following the “Century of Progress” pattern which is from the 1933 quilt competition sponsored by Sears at the World Fair. Our homework this week includes, cutting our fabric and sewing 24 blocks.

The picture above is my first block. Some of the seams aren't very straight, but I learned as I went and got a little better each time.

Things I’ve learned from this project:

*when cutting with a rotary cutter, a table that is at the correct height is crucial if you don’t want back pain!
*Placing sandpaper circles on your rotary ruler helps it from sliding when cutting
*Pressing your blocks are crucial (Pressing and ironing are different)
*A beginner quilter will need to square up the blocks after piecing!
*Chain stitching speeds up the piecing process

Overall, it's been a fun first experience. I went into this project realizing that it's a skill that needs to be developed, and that my first project won't be perfect. It will be fun to look back over the next few years and see how my skills have improved.

1 comment:

  1. You're doing a GREAT job! Your post looks a LOT like the ones from my early quilt blogging days! ENJOY the process and don't be too hard on yourself-it is supposed to be FUN!

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