My friends had been bugging me to learn to quilt for two years or so and I kept telling them I wasn't "old" enough. When they finally convinced me in January 2002, the chore was given to my good friend Gayle who instructed me to purchase some fabric and think of a pattern I would like. I went to a "super" store and found the cheapest fabric I could since, after all, this would be a one time thing for me. I showed up at her house on the day we decided on and she proceeded to teach me about rotary cutting...easy enough! I had decided I wanted my finished pinwheel blocks to be 4" each, and rather than talk me out of it, she raised her eyebrows at me and said..."are you sure?" "yes," I said ignorantly, "I'm sure," and after she did the math, off we raced with rulers and cutters and mats! She showed my how to mark my squares to make half square triangles and sew them together, then cut them in half to make the pinwheel block and sent me on my way! Over the next six months I taught myself chain piecing (thank God!) and when I had all those little squares done they told me to lay them out on the floor and sew them all together! (Seam allowance? what's that?) As you can see, I tried to put them together in the form of more pinwheels, and they had given me enough razzing that I was determined to SHOW them that I could finish this thing! (they predicted it would take me two years with all those little pieces) By the time I got all those pinwheels together, losing points, discovering some blocks were bigger than others, learning about easing seams, pucker galore, not to mention how dizzy the thing will make you if you stare at it too long! (Even the cat hesitates to walk on it!) I decided it needed some borders to make it big enough to use and added the strips and some leftover pinwheels. (The actual quilting is wonderful thanks to Michele and her long arm.) It sat for another month before I could muster up the nerve to square it up and bind it...store bought binding made the most sense to ME at the time! The sacrifices were great when they turned me loose with that straight edged ruler and rotary cutter. All in all it's hideous, a great learning experience, but under my bed it stays for the cat, folded with the back showing so it's not so scary! They never had to instruct me on fabric frenzy or how to build a stash, for some mysterious reason these things came naturally after completing my first quilt, go figger. Thankfully my skills have improved a little over the last four years and this is the only quilt that I think absolutely qualifies as a worst quilt wannabe! Thanks! Sheila Rogeness Sioux City, Iowa |