In-Depth Post #1

Hello and welcome to my 2021 In-Depth project on quilting! According to Wikipedia “quilting is the term given to the process of joining a minimum of three layers of fabric together either through stitching manually by hand using a needle and thread, or mechanically with a sewing machine or specialised longarm quilting system”. While I enjoy casual hand sewing I do not have the time nor patience to sew a quilt by hand so for this project I will be focusing on machine sewing. I began sewing alongside my nana, who will be my mentor this year, when I was around eight but I never ventured into the world of quilting further than helping my nana cut pieces. I have experience machine sewing, cutting pieces, hand sewing and following certain types of patterns but this year I wanted to learn to quilt. Quilting has been a hobby on my mother’s side of the family for many generations. My mother, grandmother (whom I refer to as nana), many grandaunts, great grandmother (my great nana) etc. have all learned to quilt and I wanted to continue the trend.

I chose my nana Ellie to be my mentor. My nana has taught my mother how to quilt and she has agreed to teach me how to quilt and be my mentor for this project. My nana began sewing in 1959 when she was ten and has been sewing since. She began quilting over 20 years ago to spite her sister and has kept it as a hobby. She has made numerous amounts of quilts and she participates in the local quilt guild (a group of people who gather regularly to discuss quilting). She regularly competes in small competitions within her guild and local quilt shows. With all this experience I thought she would be the perfect mentor for me this year.

While I originally wanted to complete a full sized quilt, after looking into it I realized this would be impossible. A queen/king sized quilt can take up to a year for experienced sewers and considering I have never quilted before this wouldn’t be possible to do in four months. The cost was also something I overlooked since according to sewingiscool.com and thequiltshow.com quilts can cost up to around $1500 to make and while I am dedicated to learning how to quilt I don’t think that will be doable either. I discussed these points with my mentor and she suggested making table runners or small four block (a block is one square of a quilt’s design) quilts instead. These projects are doable within the project time frame and is a lot more budget friendly. She directed me to a webpage with downloadable patterns (which is linked below) to start looking for patterns in these categories. One pattern she suggested was the storm at sea quilt (pictured below).

This pattern was one of the things that drew her into quilting. She loved how to straight edges could make a rounded effect and she loved to see how the colours and shapes interacted. While she mentioned this pattern was a bit more difficult than a beginner’s pattern since you have to match seams (which makes all the pieces of a quilt line up) she said due to my previous sewing experience it would be a good pattern to do as a four block quilt.

Until the next post I will be choosing a pattern and collecting materials. I am excited to start this project and see where it takes me!

Until next time,

-Hailey

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilting

https://sewingiscool.com/handmade-quilt-prices/

https://thequiltshow.com/daily-blog/142-newsletter/26633-how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-quilt

https://lindafranz.com/galleries/storm-at-sea-quilt/41

https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-care-for-handmade-quilts-2146320

One thought on “In-Depth Post #1

  1. I would have loved to learn this type of skill from my grandmother. It will be rewarding to work with her and listening to some of her stories, too. I look forward to your next post.
    Mulder

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