I know this has been done before, but we have so many new members that I think it would be nice for everyone to share again :) Maybe we could give a short explanation of what got us into quilting in the first place.

I'll start.
My best friend has anorexia, and has been sick for many many years. She was hospitalized again in April of 2008, for what we thought was a 3 month treatment in a special eating disorder program. (turned into 5 months, but after the first three months, she was in the day program which meant she got to go back to her own house at night and on weekends)
I visited with her several times a week and wanted to come up with a project we could both work on together and apart, so I figured we could make some appliqué blocks, 12 different blocks but two of each, so we would keep one and give the other to eachother.
I started looking up different quilting methods, pictures, chat forums (ha!) and I was instantly hooked.
Our little project never panned out, but my love of quilting was born in an instant.

Here is my first quilt. I made it in about a week, but then it took me a few months to quilt it properly. I made like, 4 or 5 tops before I decided to get cracking on my FMQ technique.
It's a trip around the world quilt, and I cut and sewed it piece by piece, before I knew anything about strip piecing, lol!
This picture was taken before it was quilted, but it is stippled using variegated rainbow coloured thread.

I don't have an electric copy of my first quilt. It was done in the days before I owned a digital camera, and I never scanned the photo into my computer.

It was a king-sized radiant star quilt that I made for my brother on the occasion of his wedding. Someday, I'll scan the photo in and post it :D

My first quilt is an angel wallhanging I saw this stain glass piece in the gift shop at the hospital on my way out from having heart surgery at 45 . I thought what if I could make that bigger and in fabric I would hang it on the wall. So this is what I came up with.

the one that started it all was my daughter's wedding Dragonfly Quilt. she loves dragonflies! i had been (fighting) the whole quilting experience. have sewn since i was in 4-H at 8 years old. have a friend who is a quilter who spent (years) telling me an a regular basis that i should start quilting...i kept saying 'no way' i have no interest what so ever in cutting 800 little squares and putting them back together :mrgreen:
then my daughter saw the center block of her quilt in a magazine and just happens the lqs was offering a stained glass class, you could use any pattern you wanted so i bought the dragonfly pattern and signed up for the class. after completing the block i put it aside to learn more about quilting so i could turn it into a king size quilt. about 6 months later, the wedding date was moved up and i had to get busy to make that block into a quilt, and the rest is history...i've been pumping them out in droves :thumbup:

I would love to but I didn't take any photos of it. It was an ugly lumpy log cabin mess.

My first quilt was for dear friends in appriciation for what they did for our chapter. We belong to the Goldwing Road Riders Association, and they were the Chapter Directors and gave a lot of their time and energy. :?: I didn't know what I was doing, just kept on looking for a nice block, which is the friendship block and pictures of them with the rest of the chapter. the rest is history. Still quilting & creating, what a wonderful hobby this has become.

Thanks for looking!
Justme

Sorry but my very first one was a doll quilt when I was 3 years old. That was 53 years ago and it's long gone. I used that little quilt on my "babies" for years then gave it away.

I love, love, LOVE that quilt!!! What was the pattern called?

This was my first quilt...I embroidered the quilt top and then taught myself how to handquilt on this quilt. Didn't start piecing for a couple years after this one.

This was made for my DD. She was born in 1987, but as you can see from the label I didn't get it finished right away! LOL

I was bored and needed a project. Went to Walmart for fabric - still didn't know what I would make. Bought a yard of several different bright colored fabrics. Decided a quilt would be nice since it was December. The quilt is not gorgeous, cute, pretty, awesome or any of the other adjectives used here on the board.... but it is a reminder of how far I've come.

We all know there is no such thing as the Quilt Police, but if they did exsist, I'd be in jail for life. Don't look too close but here are the things that I didn't do the way they should be done.... but being ignorant of the rules of quilting, I hereby plead "not guilty" :lol:

1. Started project with no pattern, no instructions, no design, no plan. But there is a pattern going on... pick any color block and follow it throughout the quilt... SEE! It took me forever to figure that out.

2. I used 5/8 inch seams instead of 1/4 inch. Hey, I had only sewn garments before.

3. Pressed all seams wide open instead of to one side.

4. Stitched 1/4 inch outside the ditch.... had to catch those seams, right? If I had stitched in the ditch I would have only caught the thread since my seams were pressed open.

5. Used store bought binding. Sewed it on by machine to catch both sides at once.

6. The fabrics are a mix of cotton and broadcloth.

7. To cut fabric into squares, I used a yard stick, ink pen, and scissors. Marked lines on the back of fabric and cut each square out with scissors. I didn't own a rotary cutter, mat, and rulers at the time.... but they are my best friends now.