This is the 1st quilt I made. The one Denise suggested I make for my best friend, Mary, and her baby. Denise promised to help me all along the way, and even agreed to finish it for me if I hated it. Little did she know! It took me about 3 hours to cut all the pieces. It took another 3 to lay everything out perfectly. Then another hour to draw the diagram and label all the fabric to ensure that each piece ended up in its spot. I had a few problems along the way. That's when Denise taught me the single most important lesson I've ever learned quilting... "everything comes out in the wash". It's true.
I started my second quilt before the first one was even out of the dryer. A string quilt pieced on muslin, for Natalie and Rylan. This is where my obsession for fabric began. I grabbed everything I saw and liked at the quilting store and went to town. This was before I had a sewing machine at my house, so I was at the Karnes' anytime I wasn't working or sleeping. I'm pretty sure Scott was starting to regret the day Denise got me hooked. The gold inner border was an after-thought, and quite possibly my favorite part about the entire quilt.
Mary loved Garrett's quilt so much, that she commissioned one of her own. The pattern is based off a basic log-cabin design, and I'm proud to say that it's the first quilt I came up with on my own... and several pages of graph paper. Mary and I have the same taste, so picking the fabrics was easy. Giving it to her when I was done, however, was not. This is the first quilt that was hard for me to give away. Of all the quilts I've made to date, this one is still my favorite. No offense to any of the others, of course.
My first queen-sized quilt ended up on the bed of Tara, our college mom. Jael, Natalie, Mary and myself gave it to Tara for her birthday. I really went a little overboard with the fabric selection on this one. I think it has about 20 different fabrics in it, and the primary pattern is totally lost among all the craziness. But it includes scraps from the quilts I made for Jael, Nat, and Mary, so Tara can always have a piece of us with her (sob, tear, sniffle). This was also my first time to get super-fancy with my quilting... I quilted big flowers all over. I was proud. And I didn't even cry when I gave it to Tara. Double proud.
All these quilts were made for a craft show I did in Northwest Arkansas with Daphne. None of them sold that weekend, but I put them in a local shop and they sold within about a month. Making $$$ on my quilts made me feel official :)
This quilt was my first special order, made by a lady at the craft show. I was totally NOT expecting an order for a custom quilt and had no idea how to charge her for it. I gotta admit, she got a steal-of-a-deal on this one. I've wised up a bit since then.
Awwww, circles... NEVER AGAIN! And I know... "never say never", but seriously... This quilt was Amy's Christmas present. The bright colors and funky circle pattern seemed perfect for my baby sister. Perfect? Yes. Easy? No! Guess that makes Amy's quilt super special. And I think she's pretty happy with it :)
For Mooly! Mooly loves red, so that was the only criteria for this quilt. I think the back is my favorite. And it was my first experience with wool batting (usually I use a bamboo/cotton blend). Mooly is always cold, so I figured wool would be a good choice for her. This quilt has scraps from Amy and Jes's... gotta keep the family close, you know.
A quilt made completely of scraps. I wasn't really sure what it was going to end up being when I started piecing it together. I just laid out a bunch of scraps and started grabbing bits I liked. The dark navy with light blue sprigs on it is some of my most favorite fabric EVER! Too bad it's out of print and I can't get my hands on any more of it. Quilting lesson #2: If you like it, buy a ton!
Here's another baby quilt I made for Mary. Let me rephrase: Here's another quilt Mary bought for a friend who was having a baby. I love this pattern because it's so simple and uses big chunks of fabric and color. And this fabric is most definitely adorable! The back is a huge map of roads and cars. Too cool.
Here's another one made mostly from scraps. It was intended for a baby girl, but my great friend Nicole bought it for herself, which is funny because Nicole started quilting too. Needless to say, I'm very appreciative that she wanted something of mine... even if this one is a little small for a grown-up girl :)
I didn't know what to wear to Jes's bridal shower. So I branched away from blankets and made myself a dress. It was my first attempt at making anything that had to fit, and it was a lot of trial and error. One error: I hemmed it WAY too short, so I have to wear it with leggings. Honestly, it's probably too short even to wear with leggings, so I should probably start calling it a tunic and just wear it with jeans.
This special quilt was made especially for the granddaughter of one of my favorite people at church here in Dallas (sorry, no names... to avoid word getting out and surprises getting spoiled). This is one of my favorite quilts. It's bright and funky and perfect for an awesome bedroom!
I made all these quilts before I realized I should probably come up with a way to "sign" them. So, I spent an afternoon printing some labels on fabric paper. Gotta admit, they look pretty cool. Guess I need to track down all the quilts that got away so I can claim them too :)