How my journey began, and how it is today

From humble beginnings

My quilting journey began about 15 years ago when I took a course at a local high school.  In three terms I made a hexagon pincushion, a dresden plate table centre, a cushion, and a carry bag for my mat and ruler.  Not good, all I have left is the carry mat which turned out small so the mat and ruler peak out at the top, I still use it though.  Get those fabrics!!!  I had a lot to learn except I like the blue one with the daisies and insects in fact I still have a piece.

One house move later I found a local shop which did classes and signed up for a handmade sampler quilt, this was better.  I purchased the fabrics and was told to choose a few I liked and a background fabric.  When I turned up at the class everyone had shades of blue and white, pinks and creams, that sort of thing…………I had blue,  green. yellow, burnt orange……. well, she did say choose what you like!  So mine turned out a little different, and I loved it, in fact I still think it’s the nicest quilt I ever made.  I had a go at hand quilting it as I had an older Singer machine but it didn’t work out and eventually Aileen from Border Quilts in Eyemouth in the Scottish Borders did it on her longarm and it was transformed.

Its a world away from my latest finish with circle of squares blocks .  I found it in a Stash Bee tutorial, the link is

http://toefeather.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/circle-of-squares-block-information.html

I was participating in Online Quilt Magazine’s 2015 global swap and the theme was autograph quilts, it was perfect.  fluffysheepquilting.blogspot.co.uk posted a pic as a 6 by 5 block quilt named Circle of Friends which is wonderful, mine is a 3 by 3 wall hanging the blocks made by my bee mates except the centre one which I made as someone needed to drop out.

.  I spiral quilted it on my Bernina 440QE, don’t laugh, it was my second attempt at a spiral (the first was a 12 inch square) and it’s admittedly a bit wonky in the centre but I’m so happy with it, it’s me!

Like the rocking chair?  Its my favourite place to sit and sew in my sunny window.

The colours on the back are rather washed out in the pic, it’s a dull day here in the UK, in reality it’s a strong bright green.  

Tell you more in my next post,

Smiles,

Kate

First Ever Blog Post

Hello, and welcome to the first post in my first ever blog!

I'm Kate, married, kids, grandkids, two dogs and work part time.  

I have been quilting for over ten years, I'm not saying I've lots of experience, or I'm expert, or particularly good at it, just that after ten years I still enjoy it.  

So, why start a blog now, when everyone says blogs are losing popularity and ‘everyone’ is moving over to Instagram?  Well, two years ago I had a birthday, a big one and my lovely husband gave me an iPad as a surprise and I entered a new world.  You see before that I was proficient at using a computer, I used it for work and personal stuff like documents, photoshop, searching for information, that sort of thing.  A tablet is so different, it's personal, and it has apps, but what were apps?  Then a light bulb went on and I went looking for them and found Bloglovin.  THEN I entered the world of the online quilters - a revelation. 

You see although I love quilting it had become a bit stale and, dare I say it, I was a little bored.  BUT, these lovely ladies who wrote the blogs sounded so friendly and shared advice, tutorials, and patterns, and what patterns, I had entered the world of the modern quilters and I loved it.  

Well ever since I have been a watcher, I have laughed with you all, cried with you, learnt from you and had so much fun with you but very rarely have I left a comment.  Suddenly, I felt I was missing out, I was part of it, but not part of it.  So here I am, feeling naked and exposed but ready to join the party.

Smiles

Kate