My first quilt I made as a senior in high school, all self taught because I found the little old quilting ladies intimidating and don't come from a family of quilters. It was 1977 before rotary cutters. Before much of anything really!

All I had available as books in the small town library were basic block diagrams and collections of historical appliqued quilts. I got confused with one of the books mentioned "chevrons were a common quilting motif" and even though I had never seen a quilt made out of chevrons (because as I found out later, a quilting motif was not a block) in any of the books I had seen, I drafted up a large chevron shape and made it as a twin bed size to take to college with me.

I remember going to the fabric store with my mom, I didn't have much of a budget. I ended up buying yardage with my $20 from the Montgomery Ward catalog. Two prints of the same colorway, one dark blue background with white print, the other white with blue print and two solids, a medium blue and an offwhite. Yarn tied together, first 10 years or so was all yarn ties.

As far as I know that quilt is still somewhere at my Mom's house. I looked a little last time when I was taking care of her but didn't find it.

My oh my, Do I remember my first quilt!! A Lone Star in blue, black and red (ugh). saw a picture of one in a magazine in the early 1970's and wanted so much to make one. I had no pattern, no one to inform me that I needed to allow for seams when I cut all those little diamonds from a sandpaper template that I made. Appliqued it onto a queen size sheet and quilted it on my little Kenmore sewing machine. I still have it, probably the only 9 pointed Lone Star quilt in the world (with no seam allowances, I had to make an extra point to make the quilt lay flat,LOL) I did not quilt it nearly close enough so the batting has shifted into big clumps here and there within the sandwich. A great teaching/learning project that I pull out every now and then to show a new quilter what not to do.

I sure do -- it was a pine tree block -- 48 pieces to a block. I took apart quilted scraps that an interior decorator gave me to get batting. I used double strand regular thread to make a twisted rope border. The backing was a poly/cotton sheet. It was for my son -- he took it to college -- washer and dryer, etc. Then he took it to Russia and Albania when he taught baseball to a boys camp. He gave it back to me - in tatters -- after 10 years and said -- Can you fix it for me?? The sheet back was in perfect shape.

Yes, I remember my first quilt. My friend and I took a quilt sampler quilt class and it lasted 6 weeks with learning a block every week. Sadly I must say that quilt is still in a UFO bin but I was hooked from then on and many finished quilts later I always think I should finish my 1st quilt but then something new always catches my eye. I did learn and am still learning new techniques on quilting-much more than I knew when I started that quilt class.

My first quilt was a joint project with my older sister as a graduation gift for our Mama when she became an RN at the age of 57. It was in her colors--lavendars and soft greens. My sister and I designed it with basket blocks (tiny triangles) and 4 big hearts representing the 4 daughters and a "hidden heart" quilted in to represent a baby she miscarried.

The quilt hangs above my dad's bed now.

My second quilt, made by me alone, was a tiny baby quilt made for my sister whose baby didn't make it past 21 weeks' gestation. It was green shamrocks in honor of their last name. I stitched the words "We love you baby David, June 27, 1996." The quilt was all of maybe 12x14". He was 7 inches long. My sister thanked me for giving dignity to him, to have something uniquely personal to wrap hiim in. SHe still has it in a keepsake box.

My first quilt was actually a repair job on one that was made by my sister. DH and I had used it so much, the material in the borders was worn to nothing and the batting was all clumped up. Luckily, it was tied not quilted. So I bought a book, quilting 101 type by Singer, and a ruler (6x18)/rotary cutter kit with basic instructions. Took it all apart, cut off the bad material, put in new poly batting (who knew they made cotton batting?), had to "fudge" the outer seam as she had birthed it, no binding, retied it with DMC floss and put it back on the bed. It's on the guest room queen bed and as you can see, cutting out the bad material did not make it too small.
But I was hooked. And so the journey began.
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Mine was a sampler I made for our King size bed while DH was away in basic training. I had a 10 month old, and moved in with my parents (and two youngest siblings) while he was away.

It was done in brown/rust and I drew up the blocks myself. Sandwiched and basted it out in the front yard on my Mom's old frame, then hand quilted it curled up in a rocking chair with my cat over the winter months.

I never felt much attached to it, and when we moved into our first house 10 years later I tossed it out when I re-decorated. About 4 years ago, when we were cleaning out my Mom's stuff, my sib found a candy box , and inside were all the patterns I'd drawn up for that quilt. I must have left them in the house when I moved out (over 35 years ago) and for some reason my Mom hung on to them. She didn't have them with her quilting/sewing stuff, but had them stored in her bedroom with other mementos from her children.

I started quilting when I retired 15 years ago. My first quilt was a flannel trip around the world - baby quilt. Luckily I had a little granddaughter. She is 16 now. When I signed up for the class they had already started. I was too dumb to know it would be a challenge. But I did sew so managed to do it and it came
out great. She slept with it for years

My first quilt was a wall hanging. It was a sampler pattern. Some of the blocks were made by machine and some by hand. It was hand quilted. I did the quilt in a quilting class at a local community college. It took me forever to make it .... more than one session. I didn't understand the other students who had so much fabric and didn't finish their current project. Boy, has that changed! LOL