First Quilts - DQ Smita Sinhal

(Guest post by Smita Sinhal, the 15th in our series of 'First Quilts')

I now feel blessed n lucky to have landed in a place where I had no work permit. I discovered a totally new me.

So I am in Charlotte NC with nothing to do and there is this show Simply Quilts, hosted by Alex Anderson. I was instantly fascinated by that show, how they cut with seam allowance, all those techniques to make bindings,  miter corners and so many more. Used to wait for that show to air and would religiously put TV on right on time.

One fine day decided to take a plunge. They just aired mariners compass, the block looked just beautiful beyond words and I knew THIS is the block I want to make, went to the nearest Wal-Mart, did not know any other place where I would get fabrics, so picked a sewing machine and few yards of colours. Started on the center block and by the time the block was done my fabrics also finished. Another trip to fetch a few more yards...  The center block turned out well with corners In place.. So made a few more small ones. Now I had fabric left so decided to make that border with them in squares... Joining squares was a piece of cake by now hehehe... And there was my first quilt mariners compass. Now was time to show off.... Showed it to my friends they all liked it. With this I started on a journey I love..Discovered a place Mary Joes in Gastonia NC. Most awesome place for a fabric lover. Made numerous trips to Mary Joes  and quilts after that...potrait quilt,  3 D flower quilt,  water color Quilt,  pineapple block quilt,  foundation piecing and many more.

I was blessed with a daughter with that started yet another journey of making dresses :-) . After my friends n family's encouragement I have started it professionally. I am glad I found my Love Of making Quilts, Dresses n shopping for beautiful fabrics.

Hope you like it.

Cheers!
Smita Sinhal
Www.facebook.com/smitacreationz

First Quilts - DQ Erika

(Guest post by Erika, the 14th in our series of 'First Quilts')

Geez, blogpost. No pressure guys…

Where to begin? I've been wanting to get quilting again ever since I made my first quilt, about 20 years ago… But you know, career, babies, teenager, the list goes on. Somehow, I never found the time. After moving to India, I no longer was able to work due to visa restrictions & finally had the time to follow any and all crafty (and some not-so-crafty) whims of my own choosing. No longer dedicated to designing for other people (I still had several clients I had to find new homes for - which is harder than you might think), I went at it with gusto. Sometimes, I wouldn't leave the flat for weeks. Around here, it's just create create create. Which, of course, I absolutely love.
During my working years, I always managed to find the time to make my own small projects (and a few big ones), but was intimidated by the whole 'quilting' thing. Somehow, it seemed like an awfully big commitment for something that I would never use in our home. OCD much? Yeah, guilty… It never occurred to me that I could make something I actually like. Duh.

In comes modern quilting… HELLO, QUILTIE! I pour over books, websites & anything & everything I can get my hands on, but still… No start. A year passes, no start. I was over committed client-wise &
realized that I was letting this awesome no-job opportunity slip through my fingers. Shame on me! So, with a bit of extra sari-lining left over from a previous softie-project, I decided to just go for it. For science, of course…
I didn't use a pattern, I just kinda made it up as I went along. The jury's still out on whether or not I would suggest the 'make it up as you go along' method to other new quilters, but it worked well for me… I'm a big fan of understanding the 'how & why' instead of just following directions. All problems with authority aside… I learned a TON making this quilt, and with the help of everyone here, I learn more every day.

A few things I learned along the way…
If you decide to use alternating thread colors in your quilting, don't lazy out of rethreading your machine as you quilt. Going in between already-quilted parts to fill in with an alternate color caused puckers & deformities in the quilt that I really could have lived without. Note to self: lazy doesn't work. Bummer, but true.

When they say, "You should really use a walking foot" … Listen. There's nothing worse than finally getting your quilt close to completion & then having bits of bunched fabric you have to rip out & redo… or not, if you're sick of working with sari lining. Which completely sucks, BTW. Don't be tempted by the cheap & colorful selections, it's a trap.

When they say, "Make sure the batting is bigger than the quilt top" … Listen. Due to the floppiness of the sari-lining & no walking foot, my quilt-top shifted. I was cutting it awfully close to the edge & would have appreciated the extra wiggle room a bit of extra batting would have given me… had I listened. Which, of course, I didn't. I'm sensing a theme here.

When they say, "Follow 'X' pattern for beginners" … Flip 'em the bird & do your own thing. You'll learn a lot more along the way, and feel like a rockstar-quilting-rebel while doing it.

All in all, it was a great experience. I've already got several quilts in the planning stages & another one to finish over the next day or so. It seems I've been bitten by the quilting bug & there's no stopping me now!

-Erika

 

First Quilts - DQ Sangita

(Guest post by Sangita, the 13th in our series of 'First Quilts')

The making of my first quilt -  that is a journey that started in my mind more than 6 months ago when I saw my sis-in-law, Smita sewing quilts after attending a quilting workshop and networking with DQ and I too made quilts for my daughter, and my son, and my father, and my niece- or nephew- to-be, but all in my very vivid imagination!  In fact, I went along with Smita to the favourite haunt of quilters in Bengaluru - Okhalipuram and shopped crazily for fabric that appealed to my sensibilities with still no clue what I was going to make or how as I didn't even own a sewing machine (though my very generous sis-in-law had offered me the use of all her quilting tools including her sewing machine!). Then came my surprise birthday gift - a Singer sewing machine which left me speechless and my imaginary quilts started becoming more concrete - of course, they were still imaginary as I had no clue where to start and then the Universe finally got the message that I was not going to start quilting unless I was given it to me on a platter.

Well, once the Universe had done all the figuring out, it was a smooth ride with Tina Katwal of Quilts of Love, proposing to conduct a Blooming 9-patch quilt workshop which was instrumental in my first quilt taking that giant leap from imagination to reality. Of course, there were many in-between steps like choosing fabrics, learning to cut, learning to piece, learning to iron, learning to rip seams and most importantly, learning to keep the faith that all would finally work out in the end! It only helped that all the participants of the workshop and our Guru and our hostess were the most generous and sharing people I have come across and were willing to patiently teach me from scratch and not let me give up on myself at any point. All through the making of my quilt, I was in turns proud of myself and amazed that I could be instrumental in creating something so beautiful and by the time I had finished with the binding, I was totally in love with my quilt and could not bear the thought of parting with it - something which I had decided from the beginning would be a gift for my cousin's baby due in July! Well, right now I am working hard on deciding on my next project and harder on detaching myself from my beautiful first quilt :-)

 Love, 

Sangita 

(Linking this up with Chumkie's Linky Party on 9 patches @ 'My favourite things'.)

First Quilts - DQ Smita

(Guest post by Smita, the 12th in our series of 'First Quilts'. She was also one of the participants at the 'Blooming Nine Patch Workshop' @Bangalore and gives here an insider's account)

Here goes my first foray into writing a blogpost, hope some of you taking the time to read this monologue actually enjoy it!!!

Well it all began with guru ma Tina Katwal announcing her 2 day workshop in Bangalore, needless to say I didn’t bother to read the fine print (her form got mysteriously hacked so I took it as a sign to just register and not question too much !!!)

Once I had enrolled myself and Tina sent us a checklist of stuff  to bring to the workshop, the excitement set in and I called Nikhat , Pooja and my sis in law Sangita ( co-participants ) to plan what else….. a shopping trip to buy what any quilter never as enough off ….fabric !!!!

Pooja and I set off to commercial street as we decided it was too hot to go to oklipuram, and ended up getting ripped off in terms of price but we also had great chaat,  loads of laughs and in my limited life as a quilter I have found fabric and it’s price is never a deterrent to buying it !!!

So I had all the doo dads I needed to bring and in our enthusiasm we landed at Pooja’s door bright and 45 mins early !!! It was so good to see our most generous and lovable hostess who made us feel comfortable from the start and of course guru ma is quickly becoming one of my most fave people . We spent a few mins hugging and chatting and when I m around, shopping for fabric (Yes, I admit I have a problem but hey, it is a solemn duty to support the market in these recession times ;) ) So Tina handed over all the stuff we had asked her to get for us from batting to fabric and she also got her own sewing machine, the gorgeous black beauty for Nivedita to use as she didn’t own one .

We then had a brief theory session on 9 patches how they are made , how they can be placed and Tina tried to answer all our inane questions with a lot of patience !!!

We were then let loose in Pooja’s kitchen armed with rotary cutters and June Tailors and some of us managed to chip some rulers, break Tina’s cutter and yes, we even lost Pooja’s cutter by the end of the day! I live in hope that it resurfaces in her pile of fabric and if all fails, we will do what every one does when the going gets tough.. we will go shopping for another cutter !!!! What say Pooja ???

We finally sat at our machines and guru ma had us on a tight schedule that all strip sets should be finished by noon on day one and nine patches assembled by the time we were supposed to leave at 5pm that evening . Needless to say that plan was shot to hell as we were 6 of us, 2 June tailors and 5 rotary cutters ( we hadn’t lost pooja’s cutter then !!!)

Nikhat sensibly took her parenphilia and stood in the living room and did her work quietly and efficiently. Varsha was so sweet and confused the first couple of hrs as her choice of fabrics, no of strips, all were different from the rest of us as she wanted to make a bigger one and so till she figured out how much to cut it was already noon !!! Nivedita had no supplies so we all shared and it was sheer madness with 4 novices trying to cut 4 fabrics in various lengths and numbers on 2 mats with 3 cutters and 2 june tailors.. all at the same time !!

Needless to say we worked in controlled chaos and used the times we were waiting to chat and plan some more shopping trips !!! In the alternate reality that Pooja and I exist, we are these professional, brilliantly creative quilters, hence the need for shopping trips in this reality !!!

We started stitching finally around noon and then guru ma brought out her whip oops her seam ripper most specially for me !!

A wee detail I may have missed out to mention - the closest I'd got to sewing before this was threading a needle for my mum, so although I had a ¼ '' foot, didn’t really know how much  a ¼” really was and so ended up with ½'' seams. And everytime I looked up, there was Tina brandishing the seam ripper at me and me undoing my handiwork and restarting !!! It got to a point where I was measuring my seams after every 2" of sewing and ripping even before she asked me to. That earned her nod of approval and slowly I was getting closer to the actual ¼” , HURRAH one obstacle overcome !!!

We took a break for some yummy lunch; Pooja had made some divine aloo and then it was back to work. Nikhat had started chainpiecing her nine patches while Pooja  and Sangita were struggling at their respective machines . I felt like butting my head on the wall would have more success than butting seams, but Tina and Nikhat very very patiently taught and retaught the rest of us. Varsha seemed fine and not battle-scarred and worked at her own pace on the gorgeous maharani of machines she has, whereas our poorer cousin machines worked valiantly with us . I think she had a bentley to our maruti wagon r ‘s !!!

5 pm came and went. Some of us stayed sewing till abt 7 pm and all the morning’s enthusiasm seemed to have disappeared and disenchantment started setting in. I had so much to do and was wondering how I would ever finish. Then Tina took all of Nikhat’s nine patches and showed us on the design wall how it would all look , and though I was amazed at how it actually seemed to bloom, I never really thought I would get there.

I took all my strips and machine and left for home (Nikhat, Sangita and I were travelling together). We told Pooja and Tina that we would be back at 9 am to get a head start the next day !!!

When I reached home my back was hurting and more importantly I was heart sick and feeling maybe I had bitten off more than I could chew. Shraddha, my 17 yr old amazingly supportive daughter tried cheering me up. She insisted I take a break when I wanted to start work immediately, made sure I had dinner and then around 9 pm when I sat down to sew, helped me finish all my patches, She would stitch and I would iron seams and cut, and between us we were done by 11:30 pm !!! By then I was bone aching tired and I had also decided along with Sangita that I would stick to 3 instead of 4 fabrics as we really wanted to learn basting , quilting and binding .

We reached Pooja’s place by 8:45 am on day 2 to find her door locked as she had gone to pick up tina !!! Never let it be said we wasted time, we sat on the steps and Nikhat showed us some of her work and we also learnt another way of quilting (ie blocks are quilted and then attached )

Btw on seeing her mum so weary and blue, my sweetheart of a daughter accompanied us the next day and worked like a horse to help me and her aunt finish our quilts. Without her and Nikhat’s help I really don’t believe I would have been able to do so.. so thank you both wonderful people, I owe u ( btw Shraddha wants a piercing as her guru dakshina and am awaiting Nikhat’s demand J )

When we entered Pooja’s place our hostess surprised us by showing how she had stayed up and finished not only all her blocks but all her rows as well !!!!

We started in a merry mood again and I had my trusted lieutenant  by my side so we were done by 6 pm . When I say done, we managed to baste the quilt and I had quilted 3 lines under Tina’s eagle eyes and the binding would have to be done later after all the quilting was done .

I learnt so much during these 2 days by far the most important was to work slowly , love the fabric and be gentle with it and of course precision, precision and some more precision !!!

Btw when I was actually quilting at home I managed to stitch a piece of the table cloth to the backing, a piece of the extra backing to the backing, went to remove it and managed to tear the backing so that the batting stood exposed about an inch!! Thank God for Nikhat who patiently repaired all of it .

Tina showed us so many tricks, was so generous with her tips and open in sharing her knowledge.  These 2 days showed me that being generous, sharing and helping each other is a gift we were lucky to have experienced and the bonus was all those great quilts which were made .

Nikhat took time to bind my quilt and she did an amazing job ( I say amazing because while I thought so, she seemed shocked herself how well it came out !!!) She helped Pooja too and has offered Sangita her support as well.  I have attached some pictures of the quilt and hope the love and effort shows through.

Btw the finished quilt is 40" wide x 54” long.

So would I do it all again?..HELL YEAH !!!! and if I have the same group with me next time I might actually finish one all by myself and help someone else with theirs this time !!! 

- Smita

Linking this up with the nine-patch linky party at Chumkie's blog, 'My favourite things'.

First Quilts - DQ Vani

(Guest post by DQ Vani, the 11th in our series of 'First Quilts')

My First Quilt:

This was made about 10 years ago for my daughter. She loved pink and was a real 'girly' girl (unlike her mother who was a tomboy!). It was made in a 'quilt in a day' class. We worked for 9 hours (not really stopping for lunch) and finished the quilt top (center panel). But I was hooked and so I continued to work on it for the next two days until I had completed the sandwich and started quilting in the ditch. I realised that my very old Singer barely coped and I didn't have a walking foot. So I bought one and persevered and the end result was just fantastic. I even took it to work to show it to all my friends! I am really proud of that effort. I was so hooked by the end of it I ended up buying my lovely Janome 6600 and have been quilting ever since!

- Vani

First Quilts - DQ Rashmi

(Guest post by DQ Rashmi, the 10th in our series of 'First Quilts')

This story has a happy ending. I must say so first because the beginning is a bit eerie.
It starts with a dead bird in my fridge. Yes.

Alright alright. There was cooked chicken in my fridge that day—that very day when my mother-in-law chose to make her weekly visit to our house from the other end of the city. It wouldn’t have been a big deal otherwise but that day it was, because the poor, cooked, bird got accidentally discovered by my very vegetarian south-indian ma-in-law, who, until then, firmly believed that my husband and I were also vegetarians like the rest of the family, thereby obeying centuries of vegetarian law in the whole community.
I am sure some of you understand the magnitude of the situation but for those of who don’t: it was akin to having discovered cannibals in the family! 
Drama of all dramas ensued. There was silence. And there were storms. And then Something Good had to be done.
What?
What?
What?
Was the question.
I decided to make a quilt for her birthday. 
So sweet! You would say. 
Even I was teary-eyed at the thought of my own magnanimity!

So I began to quilt.  I had made two baby-quilt-tops before that, but not a finished quilt.  I just decided to cut lots of squares first. Time was crucial. Then I cut the squares randomly into two pieces and tried to make some design out the whole mess by keeping white as the base color.
With each block it looked uglier than ever. My husband stopped looking at me because I had a permanent pathetic look on my face. One row and then another and then another. Hmm. And then the top was finished. I had to call it Tedha-Medha (Wonky-Bonky!?).I began chewing nails waiting for mails for the DQ cotton batting. I haunted Tina and Veena whichever way I could. 
I am telling you doing Something Good is no small task.
But was one quilt Good Enough? After all, Something Good had to be Good Enough.
I decided to up the ante. I would not only gift her a quilt.
I would gift her sister’s daughter a quilt too. I had a job and a kid and yet the unfinished quilts somehow pitied me and went through the sewing machine without much ripping.

In a week everything was ready and packed.  The day came and I opened up my surprise. 

The quilts did what was expected of them by completely flooring my mother-in-law! The memory of the dead bird was washed away. The broken age-old laws were buried in favor of familial love and peace. Something Good, though not stunning, polished, or perfect, finally accomplished its goal. 

Happy endings, I tell you, always, if there’s a quilt in the picture!

-Rashmi

First Quilts - DQ Prajakta

(Guest post by DQ Prajakta, the 9th in our series of 'First Quilts')

A Tale of Four pillow covers and half a bedsheet 

As a kid I remember doing lots of things with my grandmother As her first grandchild I had all the liberty to do anything and everything in the house even as child. I vividly remember our first experiment, a cake (more mine then hers ) and also the look on our maid's face when she saw the kitchen. We moved on to knitting, embroidery and then stitching; but when it came to school craft projects it was always she who used finish them for me while I used to be out playing.

Vacations were always fun reading books and learning something new from my granny till one fine day just before my Class Ten exams my father picked up all my craft stuff ( other than the school stuff) and threw it all away since I was always seen either knitting or embroidering than studying, which in his eyes was a crime.

It has been a long time since then and it was only after moving to Bahrain that I again started indulging myself in my hobby with no job ( since i recently resigned) and 5 hours of metime in the mornings when my daughter goes to school and also due to "DESI QUILTERS" . It felt like "bliss" and to add that the October challenge rules which actually pushed me to do the quilt and to add to it my loving hubby's" katkat" Why have you bought so much fabric? Why do you want to buy more fabric ? We always have to pay excess baggage when coming back after holiday to India because of your fabric shopping?

My first quilt can be described well as " A tale of four pillow covers and a half a bedsheet" . When I started, I had no plan in mind, since it was to be a strip quilt and it could be hand quilted .I wanted a bright quilt as I was tired of the dominance of PINK in my daughter's bedroom so I choose her second favourite colours green and orange . It took me a week to finish the quilt and during that time my living room and the dining table looked like a battlefield , but the effort was worth it. I made a lot of mistakes as I did not plan the quilt layout, which I want to overcome in my next quilt ( for my brand new nephew). 

I did miss my grandma's critical comments on my first quilt since I lost her a few years back, but thanks to my first quilt I relived my childhood with a trip down the memory lane to enjoy those precious moments which I had with my grandmother. 

Happy Quilting DQs!

-Prajakta

First Quilts - DQ Sunita

(Guest post by DQ Sunita, the 8th in our series of 'First Quilts')

Dear DQs,

I am here today to share my very first quilt experience.The first quilt I made was for the second love of my life. (First one being obvious).

It is called "Spring Chick Cot Quilt" by Janet Goddard.

I must say that I was heavily inspired by the group "Desi Quilters". I watched what others were doing for a few days and then took a plunge. Even though I was an avid sewer and took sewing lessons for children, I had never quilted. Everyone at DQ is very encouraging and generous with their appreciations. I advice any new bees to participate, show their work and ask questions, take suggestions and there will be no looking back.

Anyway back to my first project. I made this on my Usha Janome 'Stitch Magic'. I used fabric from my stash. The original quilt was in bright yellow but since I did not have any, I used mustard instead. I did all the cutting with scissors as I did not own a mat and rotary cutter then. Plus I did want to know how it felt to do it with basic tools. Well to be honest it wasn't as hard as I had thought. ( I guess because I hadn't used the advanced tool then, its going back to basics that is difficult I think). There are six Chicks that are all machine appliqued. This is where I learnt my first machine appliqueing. It got better with each chick. A total of six blocks and the finished size is 38" by 52".

The top was pretty simple and took me just a few days time. I hand basted the quilt as I did not own good quality quilting pins. After the basting, I machine quilted with the regular foot since I do not own a walking foot as yet. I just did straight line quilting with no free motion quilting. In the end I added the 2.5" on fold binding with mitred corners.

This one will always be special as it will always remain my first. So here it is the "Chick quilt".

My advice to new bees is start with a small quilt, like a baby quilt. Big quilts in the first go can be daunting. Don't think that you can't quilt if you don't have rotary and a cutting mat and hordes of other expensive quilting items. Use left over fabric at home, do a project or two and figure out if you have the patience and the love for this craft to make further investments, both in terms of money and time.

Thank you for reading. You can get back to quilting now. Happy quilting folks.

Love
Sunita

First Quilts - DQ Sudha

(Guest post by DQ Sudha, the 7th in our series of 'First Quilts')

Hey guys,

My experience with my first quilt..

Firsts are always special. First friend, first fight, first gift, first school, first kiss, first baby, first marriage.!! uh-oh....that didn't sound a wee bit right, did it. Keep shut and march ahead.! Which brings me to my first quilt.!

I have been eyeing the umpteen quilting tutes in the blogworld for the longest time possible. but then at any given point i have my eye on zillion diy/sewing tutes . same time i joined DQ was the Sept Dq monthly challenge. And there is this one persistent babe out there who kept sitting on my head on getting started on one.

And I got down to the business of starting. I had two first quilt, no three. But I was so happy that this particular one turned out be my first. It represents everything i am. Hell, it screams me. Its minimalistic in design, its vibrant, the Indian colours, the Indian fabrics, it shouts colours..!! It was plain and simple and yet a whole lot complex. It took me two weeks to complete this. Two weeks and two hundred zillion FB hours with you know who??? :) Yes Teens (thanks for tolerating me)

I took up hand quilting as my first quilting method. I don't know whether it was a risk or safe choice. I wanted to incorporate the kantha technique with a modern twist. So I read up some, looked up a few, and ended up doing squares. And no it wasn't a planned and organised approach. I drew line as i sewed each line. I am surprised how i managed such squares too.

Have I thoroughly enjoyed my first quilting experience? At times I thought I was mad taking on this challenge( I mean wholecloth quilt - what the heck was that..!!!)... the aching back while pinning, the aching neck while quilting, the layers not pinned evenly. However, the satisfaction I felt upon finishing each stage and the enormous sense of achievement seeing my quilt finished, was worth every minute of it!!! And that look on my kiddo's face - ah bliss..!!Yes, I'll be making more quilts. I'm hooked!!!

And the beauty, I guess having that first "done" makes me, officially, a quilter.

-Sudha

psst - I couldnt help but notice the order of my firsts..!! does it look weird to only me? ;)

Here are a few pics -

First Quilts - DQ Manju

(Guest post by DQ Manju, the 6th in our series of 'First Quilts')

My First Quilt

My mother used to sew beautifully and do a lot of fine embroidery and I grew up seeing a lot of clothes being stitched and a lot of patchwork quilts being made. Sewing always fascinated me and I got a chance to play with it when I grew up. But the quilt bug caught me only after we landed in the USA about twelve years ago.

Quilting is big time over here and the different blocks that you can create just amazes me. The art quilts … ah! One of my big dreams is to make a half decent art quilt !

So a bit after settling down in our new home I visited a fabric store and they were starting a fresh quilt group for newbies…a block a month. You take a packet, they give you instructions to make the block, you show your completed block the next month and they give you the next block. So in twelve months we learnt to make 12 different blocks and they did give another class for binding and finishing the quilt, which I unfortunately missed!

So the first quilt I ever made was a sampler quilt with the American colours – red, white and blue. Adding my touch to the quilt I did a bit of satin ribbon embroidery on the border.



This quilt is gifted to my first born and I think it has been pretty well used. The quilting part is not well done on this one as I neither knew how to do it nor how and where to get it done so brought it back to ‘apanee Dilli’ and the local razai walla made a hash of it.

Though I did make it about 10 /11 years ago my quilting was lying dormant for a number of years and it has come out of hibernation only recently!

Also I love belonging to my Desi Quilters group and airing my quilting urge.

~Manju

First Quilts - DQ Poornima

(Guest post by DQ Poornima, the 5th in our series of 'First Quilts')

First of all, Thanks for putting my first quilt as the cover page! Truly a motivating gesture for an upcoming quilter! This group is really inspiring!

Making my first quilt has been an exhiliriating experience. But also it has been the most challenging... yes, one needs a LOT of dedication to finish it! I am so happy that I actually finished it!

Let me share with you how it happened. When I decided to make a quilt, the first thing thing for patterns on google. I found some really good ones, the pretty ones, the large ones, the smaller ones, the colorful ones, the simpler ones, the complicated ones...and finally I was confused and exhausted! Google is very helpful, but at times it throws up more information at you than you actually need. That is when I decided to visit Desi Quilters on Facebook and the Desi Quilters blog.

Desi Quilters are the most active quilters in the world! Everytime you log in, there is something new to look at. There is enough information (read inspiration) for a new quilter. I went through a lot of the pictures, tried to understand the patterns, fabric, colours, variations, most importantly measurements and also read a lot of posts/write ups from the members. At the end, I felt all geared up to create my very first quilt.

The first and foremost challenge for me was the measurements. Yes, it was very difficult for me because, I am not that good with numbers! In quilting, my measurements have to be precise if I want to put the pieces together at the end. I wrote my pattern and the measurements on a graph sheet. I erased and wrote again, and again and again - It took me two days to finally settle with a pattern and measurements. Then came the task for measuring the fabric. Again, I measured and remeasured and finally cut the fabric and got all the pieces ready. Sewing the pieces together felt like a cakewalk...until I realised that I have taken the wrong measurements! That's when I "slightly" started to feel that deciding to quilt was a wrong idea. I came back to Desi Quilters - saw more pictures - different patterns, colorful fabric, quilted pouches, quilted handbags, what not! That reassured me that I can really get this quilt together!

I re-did the measurements and cut the fabric. Once you get the peices ready, like I said, sewing is really a cakewalk. I cut the batting material and the back piece, and finally finished the quilt. It took me a week to finish the quilt. Finally when I showed it to my family and gifted it to my niece, it was a great experience! It gave me a high and inspired me to create more quilts (now that everyone in the family wants one!).

Creating a quilt is not a cakewalk, but you really feel like you have eaten a big piece of cake once your quilt is finished! I am hooked on to quilting. I can't wait to create more!

Thanks to Desiquilters!
-Poornima

First Quilts - DQ Bhavani

(Guest post by DQ Bhavani, the 4th in our series of 'First Quilts')

Hello DQs

Here is my first quilt. I started thinking about it a couple of months ago, then I joined DQ, which was inspiring enough to get me started.

I am thrilled about completing this baby quilt. It measures 60x 42 inches and is made up of my 14 month old daughter's first year clothes. Both my twins lived their first year in bodysuits and sleepsuits. So all their clothes are made of hosiery material, which is not the ideal quilting fabric, I understand. But for me it was about preserving their beautiful clothes so that some day they will look at the pieces and ask me about each dress they wore. Cant wait :).




I loved the experience of quilting, I know I will be doing a lot more of this craft in the coming years. I also know I will not be working with this fabric ever again, it was a nightmare and the end result is stretchy and not so neat.

-Bhavani

First Quilts - DQ Chumkie

(Guest post by DQ Chumkie, the 3rd in our series of 'First Quilts')

My First Quilt

Here is my first queen-size quilt, made in my first quilting class. The pattern is called Sunshine and Shadows. The squares adjacent to the white squares have some red in them, which the camera didn't pick up, so it isn't completely monochromatic.

It took 4 weeks to complete the top. I took a follow-up class to learn how to pick and piece a backing,  layering and basting the three layers, and took another class in hand quilting.

I initially started out machine quilting it, but since I was working with an old, old sewing machine which didn't have a walking foot, I gave that up in a hurry! It took me 3 years to complete hand-quilting this quilt!

There was enough material on the back of the quilt which allowed me to fold it over to the front to simulate binding.

This quilt was started in March 1991 and finished in September 1994. It was a very challenging first quilt and my advice to beginner quilters would be to start small because there’s no greater satisfaction and inspiration than to walk away from a class with a finished quilt.

This quilt was gifted to Son #2 a number of years ago, is used daily and still covers his and his wife’s bed.

- Chumkie

First Quilts - DQ Amalie

(Guest post by DQ Amalie, the 2nd in our series of 'First Quilts')

I have not been quilting very long so I will share the first and so far only quilt I have made. I do not own a sewing machine yet, so all my projects are hand pieced over paper to keep it fixed. This quilt was a gift for a very special person or rather persons, a good friend and her newborn daughter.

My first quilt started with these fabrics..




Came to look like this after I fixed the fabric on the paper templates..




The front of the quilt ended up like this after hand sewing the pieces..

And the end result with a purple fleece back and batting looked like this..



After making this quilt I was completely hooked on making more quilted things. I have made a few patchwork balls since and have also started on my next quilt.

Amalie

First Quilts - DQ Brinda

First quilts are always special to us and regardless of how many quilts we've made after that, the first ones will always hold a special place in our hearts. DQ is happy to introduce a new series of blog posts featuring the very first quilts made by our very own DQs. So join us as they share their experience of their first forays into the world of quilting, their baby steps, lessons learnt and memories sewn in.

We are honoured to have with us DQ Brinda, who shares with us her amazing 'first quilt'. Over to Brinda...

I sewed most of the clothes for my daughters when they were growing up! This meant there was a huge collection of fabric bits left over, and since I LOVE fabric and don't throw any of it away, it had piled up to enormous amounts. So the idea of making a quilt each for my girls and their husbands, using my bits and pieces, was born. Nishka and Manoj love trees, as do I, so I created a tree. It also symbolizes growth, shelter and life for me and that's what i wanted to wish the two of them.

Many of the fabric bits used in this crazy quilt were left overs from Nishka's clothes itself, and it was a joy to see the expression on her face as she recognized the fabrics!

However, it became a labour of not only love, but toil and backache!!! Every time I wanted to work on it, I needed to lay it down on the floor, get on to my hands and knees and place and sew the pieces in place. It wasn't helped that our boxer and the cat would take this as an invitation to sit on it, the moment it was laid out! The final result was great and well worth the effort! However I have learnt that all future quilts will be made in sections or with blocks!

Brinda

(If you would like to share your first quilt with us, do mail us a few pics along with a write-up to desiquilters@gmail.com)