My First Quilt

      Over a year ago, like 2 years ago, I bought a Mennonite home ec book to learn to sew.  Sewing machines were giant evil monsters with giant evil fangs to me.  This was mainly due to never really having a good and proper lesson, and having a broken machine.  (pun intended) Sew, when dad bought me a used machine b/c the older one wouldn't work, I decided to try and learn again, as it wasn't broken that I could tell.  I read and followed the first book to make my first project, a small and simple quilt.

 Here is the square

       It's a log cabin design.  Each fabric is sewn to the previous and cut in a mathematical sequence allowing for quick and easy assembly without having to check oneself every stitch.  It was so easy, I got to where I enjoyed it a great deal and would spend hours at a time in the craft room with TV playing on my Kindle just sewing away.
     
 I placed all the squares out, asking Arlis for his advice.

It's good I did ask for his advice.  I rotated each piece one rotation and went to the next.  This turned out to be...

 See it?  Look closer-it's a swastika.

 Arlis, "So, this book is Mennonite?  And therefore German?  And you're blonde?  Bwa ha ha haaaaa!!!"  All jokes aside, I took his design advice, and did the following.  I also sewed four more squares.

 And then four more.  Some of the squares were different sizes, and there are tucks and creases where I lined up the strips.

 I wasn't about to pay for batting, and my wool needed carding.  A carder wasn't in the budget just yet.  But a huge amount of really thick felt like material went on sale for $1.50 a yard.  I bought a BUNCH!

And then sewed it to the back of the quilt.  It was very difficult to do this as the material was stretchy.  It turned out uneven.  But only if you look for it.  I made this to be used, not framed.

 I used mom's quilt hoop to comfort knot the quilt.

 I used matching colored threads for the knots, which I just happened to have.  That was cool.  It also turned out to be geometrically perfect, even cooler.  You can see how you just make loops or sew from each place to the next making sure two strings in each area are about a half inch apart or so.  Each knot area needs to be about 3 inches apart or so.

 You then cut through each loop or straight stitch.  (Don't forget the other side)

 And then tie a square knot on BOTH sides.  Here you can see how it all matched up.

 Here is the back side.  See how it's all geometrically cool and stuff?

 DONE!

 I had plenty of fabric left over, so I wanted to make pillow cases.  After much debate, we decided to go with accent pillows instead of cases.  I changed the square pattern to make it look better as a single.  The pillow was a project in the second book.  It's a cover over a basic stuffed pillow.  Arlis, "It even has snaps and everything."  I was real proud of myself.

 And here it is all together.  I'll make a second pillow once the chickroom becomes my craftroom again.  Dad used the quilt and said it was fine, but he did need an extra blanket.

     I went through a bunch of thread, bought a bunch of new things, and had to take my new/old machine in to get repaired.  But I now feel pretty good with a machine.  I've learned to basic sew, roll cut, comfort knot, and when to give up and take the machine in.  I have a self-healing mat with a roller and a new pair of shears.  It's a real shame that I bought all the good stuff after I cut all the quilting strips out and wound up with crooked stitches and different sized squares, but the point of this exercise was to learn after all.