My first quilt

March 17 being National Quilting Day I was reflecting back on quilts that I have made through the years.
I was in high school when I made my first quilt, 1970.  I wanted a quilt for the beach and sun bathing - a padded quilt was a perfect idea.  I never made a quilt before and my mother never made quilts.  In fact, I had no clue on the process I just knew what I wanted to accomplish.

I walked up to a Kmart ( which was the only store that carried fabric near my home) and purchased cotton percale and some quilt batting with my babysitting money.  When I got home I cut the fabric and batting into long strips about four inches wide using a yardstick and a pair of scissors.  With my mother's sewing machine I proceeded to sandwich and sew the strips together, a row at a time.  I was sewing a quilt as you go - that was the process I figured would work to sew all the quilt on a sewing machine.  When I was finished I sewed a binding around the raw edges.  It took a little over a week to finish.  Completed, it was the size of a full bed - enough room for me and a couple friends to hang out on.

My quilt was perfect.  My friends loved my beach quilt too and asked me to make one for them.  I just told them that I would help them make one, but they never did.  That quilt got a lot of wear and tear and was patched over and over.  I brought it to the beach, picnics, tailgating and just dragged it around.

Looking back, just think I could have been the one who created the quilt as you go craze.  

I can not begin to count the number of quilts I've made since then, but I'm certainly more skilled and the technology has made the whole process so much easier an accurate, but my first quilt was so cool and I still have it.

Blast from the past - pinwheels

Here I go with my first UFO quilt.

Quilt #1 - Pinwheels

This quilt was pieced in the mid 90s.  Some of the fabric was leftover from the 80s from sewing a shirt for my then toddler son (he's now is in his mid-thirties).   This quilt was constructed at the first official quilting class I took and I was trying to use up some of my fabric stash.  The pinwheel pattern being taught was perfect for the playful design on this fabric.   

I am a confessed fabricholic.  I purchase fabric because I like the color, design and feel with no project in mind.  The more I like the fabric, the more I buy.  Some fabric I love sooo much that I have a hard time committing it to a project and just hang on to it, therefore my stash is growing.

As I press the quilt top getting it ready to load on my longarm machine I notice that the points are in fact points - not bad, but not perfect.  The back had all the dog ears at the seams so I spent a couple hours snipping up the back.  The floor looks like confetti.  So many rules/tips to learn at the beginning I guess the lesson on clipping dog ears must of been missed or I didn't think it was too important.

Clipping dog ears from the seams

Finally ready to load the quilt and get to work.  I've been learning to use rulers so this will be a good piece to try my skills.

Bada Bing! Finished quilt number one - pinwheels

Well, that was fun.  So far so good.  This is very promising and I'm ready to grab the next quilt.  I know it's early, but I think this is going to be lots of fun - not only sticking to my resolution but reminiscing.

When looking at some of your quilts does it bring back any great memories?  Who you made it for, a special fabric, who you sewed it with or a new technique you learned.  Making quilts has such good times - it's sort of like a scrap book.  

I'm ready to grab the next quilt from my pile.  The Midnight Stitchers is seeing hearts.

2018 - Let the good times roll!

I've thought long and hard about my New Years resolution.  I came up with the mission "Year of Accomplishments"

Remember my previous post and that pile of quilt tops and the longarm quilter?   Well I've gotten the hang of using my longarm and starting to feel pretty confident to start tackling that pile of quilt tops.  I've come a long way with my quilting - hand quilting, free motion quilting and now longarm quilting.  My goal is to quilt and bind that stack of quilt tops.  Most of them have the thread and backing wrapped up with them just waiting to be united.

I decided not to count how many are waiting to be finished - that could be over whelming.  I am going to count them as I finish them.  This could be the "Year of Accomplishments" if I stick to my New Years resolution.

Come along on my journey.   I hope posting my progress will inspire you to finish up some of your unfinished objects.  The Midnight Stitcher is on a mission - wish me luck!

2017 projects

2017 didn't go by without any quilting.  I completed four baby quilts to give away as gifts.  Remember on a previous post - I don't make many small quilts.   In my opinion a baby quilt needs to be big enough for a baby to grow into a toddler and drag around to wear out.

Here are the quilts:

This quilt was given to little Harry.  His family is currently living in Buffalo, NewYork while his mother is finishing college.  They plan on moving back to Michigan after she graduates.  I decided to use the colors blue and orange to remind them of home - the Detroit Tigers.   The fabric has bicycle motifs.   Will be glad when they move back to Michigan and I will be able to see little Harry grow.

The fabrics used are a collection from Maywood called "Cycles of Life"

Harry's quilt

A beautiful baby girl was born in September, Nyla.  Nyla's nursery is decorated in pink and gray.  I found this beautiful fabric with little forest animals - which is appropriate for our neck of the woods - northern Michigan, that had the perfect colors.  Although the picture of the quilt below the color looks peach it is pink.

The main print is by Moda, "Just Another Walk In The Woods"

Nyla's quilt
The quilt pattern is called Crossing Paths by Free Spirit

With leftover fabric I made a fabric basket and filled it with some goodies - a book, diapers and wipes.  What I thought would be an inexpensive way to bring as a gift to the newborn ended up being costly with the foam padding and interfacings this pattern required, but there was enough left over for another basket or two and it worked out great.

Nyla's matching fabric basket

A baby shower held in November was for a baby girl.  She was born in January of 2018 - Allayna.  This quilt was made from scraps of the above Nyla quilt, "Just Another Walk In The Woods" plus a pop of lime green color that was picked up from the main fabric. As mentioned above there was enough fabric and interfacing/padding to make another basket so I made one for Allayna too.

Allayna's quilt

And last but not least at the end of 2017 a beautiful baby boy was born, Evan.   My eldest son, Dave, came with me to the quilt shop to pick out some fabric.  Evan lives in Minnesota with his new family, so again a woodsy theme seemed appropriate.  This pattern is from a kit (I am not one to use kits very often, but this one was perfect).  Well almost perfect - I added pops of mustard colored fabric throughout the quilt to break up the natural and black colors.

This fabric is from Moda called "Thicket".  I love the pen and ink drawing look of this fabric line.

Evan's quilt

My son Dave is showing interest in my sewing/creating.  For Christmas gifts he sewed t-shirt pillows.  I showed him how to get started and he just took off.  He said I hovered over him and needed to give him some space.  Oppps.  I guess that is what Moms can do.  He did a fantastic job and makes me proud.

So as you can see 2017 had this midnight stitcher burning her candles and quilting away.

Reflecting on 2017

A lot has happened since I last posted on my blog:

I feel that I need to catch up.

First, I purchased a long arm quilter.   I have always completed my quilts from beginning to end.  I consider the final quilting as my mark on the quilt.  Free motion quilting has worked good, but I didn't like the hassle of trying to crunch my quilt in my sewing machine.  I have to admit I don't make many small quilts - most of my quilts are queen size - so I have a pile of quilt tops waiting to be quilted.

Next, you need to have time.  I've worked a full-time job for over 40 years.  I retired in October 2016 from my newspaper job of 27 years.  Yeah, my passion for creating has been set free.

But wait, I had one more obstacle - I was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2017.  So 2017 became a year about health.  I went through chemo, hair loss, surgery and radiation.  I was so lucky - the tumor was reduced so small that surgery just removed the small tumor and I am now cancer free.  Fingers crossed I stay this way.

So good bye to 2017!