Hi everyone. Happy Monday. To celebrate my 100th blog post (102th actually) and the fact that I got another pattern up in my etsy shop I’m having another give-away. You can see the pattern details by clicking on the “visit my shop” button on the left. This basket was really fun to make and easy to complete. Enjoy.
To enter the contest just leave a comment telling me how you got started quilting. I will pick a winner via my new favorite thing, the online random number generator.
Starting tomorrow I’m going to be starting Feathered Star tutorials. I will show you how to do them by paper piecing and by good old fashioned piecing. I’ve learned a few tricks that I’m excited to pass on. Just remember, this quilt block isn’t as hard as you think and I will show you the tricks.
P.S. did you know you can draft the entire feathered star block in Adobe’s Photoshop Elements?
I started quilting so I could participate in the community quilt project in the small town where I lived. It was an annual fundraiser for the volunteer fire department.
The person organizing the quilt my first year was also a quilting teacher who taught classes for the blocks needed for the quilt and convinced me I could do it.
Posted by: sophie | 02/08/2010 at 11:36 AM
I started quilting by admiring a friends work and started taking quilting classes at th local church in the afternoon one day a week. Now after 26 years later I am addicted.
Posted by: Jeannette | 02/08/2010 at 11:43 AM
Congratulations on your 100th posting. This is a beautiful pattern! I started quilting by making a rail fence quilt out of sewing scraps.
Posted by: Karen W. | 02/08/2010 at 11:45 AM
I just decided to quilt. HA HA, at least I could have bought a pattern for the first, but I was 24 having my first baby and well I had not thought it would not turn out great. Actually it did, even using the puffy polyester batting and who knows what the fabrics were. It hung over the crib and everyone thought it was darling. I have sewn since I was 7 so no one ever gave me rules to follow...but I do follow them now and my quilting came a long way since. Thanks for your sight!!! Kathy Benari
Posted by: Kathy Benari | 02/08/2010 at 12:38 PM
I start to quilt 15 years ago. I saw som quilts in a magazine and it was love at first side. I love your blog and patters.
By by Hennie Schutter from the Netherlands.
Posted by: Hennie Schutter | 02/08/2010 at 01:05 PM
A month after we married my Husband and I visited his Granny for a week. I had never seena quilt before that and I was speechless. I had never seen such beautiful quilts. She taught me as much as she could in the short time we had and I have been in love ever since. She loved applique and showed me just the basics. I learned from books and phone calls back to her and also learned to love applique. I have not done any in a while but finding your blog has caused me to want to try it again. Thank you!
Posted by: Diane | 02/08/2010 at 01:22 PM
I started quilting because of my Grandmother's love of it. She bought me books and told me stories of all the quilts she had made and donated to her church. I really wish she was around now to show me some of the techniques she used, I'm sure she had lots of tips and tricks!
Posted by: Loralynn | 02/08/2010 at 01:22 PM
My mom was a quilter. When my sister-in-law was pregnant with her first baby I embroidered blocks and made them into a quilt. That was my first. I love fabric and trying new techniques. Right now needle turn applique is my new technique. Thanks for your tutorials.
Posted by: SD Janet | 02/08/2010 at 01:33 PM
I have had a needle in my hands for as long as I remember. I bought my first quilting fabrics to decorate my diary's for school in the '90s. In 1994 I got a Dutch Ariadne in hands, lived very near a quilt shop, for my graduation got some money from my parents, bought my first fabrics and started a double size quilt by hand!
Posted by: Jantine Urban | 02/08/2010 at 01:49 PM
My grandmother always had a quilt going. She taught me to embroidery and helped me start a quilt when I was in my early teens. That was before rotary cutting! But I really got started in the mid nineties when a group of friends got together and the ones who knew how taught the rest of us. I am a true addict now.
Posted by: Yvonne Colorado Springs, Colorado | 02/08/2010 at 02:17 PM
My friend wanted to have a buddy to go to a BOM at a local quilt shop. She said all you have to do is sew in a straight line & cut out a few shapes, just one block a month and in a year you would have a "whole" quilt!! She quit after 3 months...I was hooked...I made three of the same blocks every month I just could stop, they were so addicting just like potato chips!!! Still going strong after 14 years, but now I have my own studio & longarm...I never have to pick up my projects in progress..I love my hobby!
PS: I love the name of your new pattern(LOL)
Blessings,
Posted by: Debbie Short | 02/08/2010 at 02:27 PM
I made my first quilt with the help of my grandmother when I was a pre-school age child. I took my first quilt class in 2005 and have been hooked ever since.
Posted by: Deborah | 02/08/2010 at 02:42 PM
First of all, Congrats on your 100th post! I got started quilting because of Amish Quilts. I live in Indiana Amish country and just couldn't see paying all those $$ for a quilt I could do myself. That was over 20 years ago!
Posted by: Karen | 02/08/2010 at 02:44 PM
I learned all kinds of handwork at my Gram's knee, except quilting. In my 30's I made a couple of baby quilt tops. Then 10 years later tried it again. That time it stuck and I now consider myself a quilter!
Posted by: Charae Hemphill | 02/08/2010 at 02:47 PM
My grandmother taught me when I was pregnant with my first child. Started a baby quilt but never finished it! Through the years that quilt has disappeared and not become a UFO.
Posted by: Rhonda Phillips | 02/08/2010 at 03:26 PM
I made a calico trip around the world tied quilt with sort of general instructions from a friend in 1980. I completed the project and was proud that I'd done it, but didn't consider making another one. Ten years later I stepped into a new quilt shop (I'd never even heard of one) with an out of town co-worker who was looking for a folksy memento of his visit to NC and I was completely stunned at the color and variety of fabric. I signed up for two classes that day and never looked back. BTW - he didn't buy anything :)
Posted by: Lynn in NC | 02/08/2010 at 04:00 PM
I started as a young girl doing embroidery, maybe 10ish. From there I evolved to cross-stitch, then making baby blankets to quilts.
I am so excited to follow your tutorial on the feathered star. I've been wanting to make one of these, but am so intimidated by all the pieces.
Posted by: Mandy M | 02/08/2010 at 05:15 PM
Hmmm, I am really trying to remember how the heck I got the idea? About 11 years ago, we got our tax refund and I went to the LQS and bought $250 worth of flannel. Enough to make 2 quilts, one for me and one for my sister.
Posted by: Kelly | 02/08/2010 at 05:28 PM
Hi! I have stumbled onto your blog via the Quilting Bloggers website and am absolutely smitten with your appliqué techniques.
I got started quilting when my second child was just a baby. I decided to become a stay at home mom when she was born. I would watch the local PBS station during early morning feedings, and there were a few quilt shows that played. I was naturally drawn to the quilts, because I have a touch of OCD and have a quirk regarding spatial relations. I also love math and have a thing for blankets. Even though I had never stitched a thing in my life, I thought for sure I could sew small squares together! Decided to get a sewing machine and took a class at my local quilt shop. I have loved it ever since.
Posted by: Sunny Thomas | 02/08/2010 at 05:30 PM
How I got started? I had this friend who said I would love quilting and a 24 block sampler would be a good way to start!!!!! Thanks Erin! You're the best!
Posted by: Debbie | 02/08/2010 at 06:36 PM
I started quilting when I took a hand quilting class with a friend. I then decided to make a baby quilt for my sister in law's baby and used polyester fabric. The batting keep poking out of the fabric. I now quilt by machine and rarely do any hand sewing. That has been 23 years now.
Posted by: Jill Hick | 02/08/2010 at 08:03 PM
I grew up sewing little blocks together by hand making little doll quilts and didn't take any classes until marriage. Then I took and loved a log cabin quilting class and made two quilts for Christmas that year. I loved quilting but stayed away from it during all the raising children years. I've recently gotten back into quilting and in a BIG way!
Posted by: Deb | 02/08/2010 at 08:38 PM
I started quilting when a friend offered to do a beginners class at the local library. We later became a guild!
Posted by: Wanda Myers | 02/08/2010 at 09:37 PM
I happened to see a Thimbleberries wall hanging and fell in love with it. I didn't realize it was a "Club" pattern, so I searched for a quilt shop that sponsored the Club and they were just starting a new session. The nearest was 40 minutes away, but I really needed some help and guidance so the Club was a perfect way to get both. I was instantly hooked...
Posted by: Gloria | 02/08/2010 at 10:31 PM
Grazie. Sei sempre molto utile!!!!!!!
Posted by: angelabe | 02/09/2010 at 12:14 AM