Wednesday, January 4, 2012

My First Quilt

I am a huge fan of quilts.  Whenever I'm at an art show I often find myself at the quilt booth running my fingers over the different textures, admiring the beautiful colours and work that goes into making one.   Buying a quilt is several hundred dollars so I decided to take a class and learn the art so I could make one for myself.  Now I use the word "art" because if you look closely at the detail in a quilt, the fabric, the texture, the colours and the patterns, you will see and appreciate the masterpiece that it is.  All these factors take a lot of thought and tons of time!

Was I the youngest in my class?  Yes!  But I feel quilting is making a comeback especially among younger people.   Take the modern quilt guild for example, it started in 2009 and now there are over 100 branches across the world with members of every age.  Even Toronto has one!  Take a look at the website and see how the quilt patterns have changed.  Long gone are the days of flowers and farm animals,  now it's about colour and shapes.  

http://themodernquiltguild.com/

The quilt I decided to do is called a sampler quilt.  I't's made up of many different squares which is a great way to learn each one.  I'm far from finished my quilt but I thought I'd post a few pics of my progress so far:




Still need to finish quilting it and then do my binding. (The edges)




My quilt is made up of squares and those squares are made up of even smaller squares.  Here's a picture of one square being pieced together.



 These squares are called Flying Geese.



  This is "Log Cabin (left) and "Friendship Star" (right)




I will post more pictures as I finish it and of course the final product!  If anyone has an interest in learning I encourage you to do it.  There are many people in the city that teach both hand and machine quilting so there's an option for everyone.  I've had so much fun making this and all my hard work (many, many hours) will be rewarded upon the completion of my beautiful new quilt!