I remember I was reading a quilt magazine and decided I wanted to try quilting. Don't ask why, I just jumped off the deep end. No lessons, no one to ask questions, just a magazine, and home ec years ago (don't ask how many years). So here I go. Should I make a big quilt for my bed or a wall quilt. Well the wall quilt won. Boy was that a shock. I had no idea how little those blocks were going to be. Well I got it done and I'm still quilting. What was your first quilt and how did you get started?

Your workmanship looks very good..........pretty

that is very nice... is that denim you used by chance? I just posted my first quilt a few days ago... And i was inspired by my sil. And to this day my dream is to be able to quilt half as good as she! I made a denim and red flannel quilt using the ohio star block and loved it... and so did the recipient. I am very impressed with your quilting.. did you use a machine? or do it by hand?

Great quilt, first or 100th. Love the red and blue:)

I got started about the same way. Woke up one day, saw a program on TV and thought "I could do that" One trip to the LQS and my avatar was born! That was my first quilt.

My first attempt...was only an attempt because I had no clue how to do it. I tried to make a hand appliqued quilt. Didn't have much $$ so used sheets and they were probably not cotton. It was a disaster. My next attempt about 20 years later was another applique and I did get pretty far with it, but it was not very pretty! I have since been more sucessful with machine applique. I never gave up! I am just now learning how to do hand applique...now that I am old and slow and much more patient!

My SIL quilted and I have always sewn all sorts of things, so decided to give quilting a try. My first was a lap quilt for my husband, a split rail fence. The focus fabric had airplanes on it. I picked the fabrics then went to a Saturday morning class. We brought whatever project we were working on and they helped. They picked an easy pattern for me, batting and backing and even showed me how to quilt it. He loved it to death, well nearly to death as it is falling apart now, and that was 11 years ago. I haven't stopped. They just keep getting more inventive and challenging.

I saw a pattern for a double Irish chain in a magazine in late 1978. I made the top in the spring of 1979 with fabric my sister in law and I ordered from the back of a magazine. It was 50 pounds of fabric for 5 bucks. LOL I never made the second one I saw in a magazine back then. It was a Lemoyne type star made with jeans and velvets. I never could find enough velvets and now that I have enough the pattern is long gone.

My first quilt was a French Braid, and I followed the instructions in Jane Hardy Miller's book.

At the time, I was into making super-heavy-weight doubled-fleece blankets for the homeless population here in Minnesota. I bought the fleece as cheaply as possible, which meant using coupons from my local Mills End Textiles. As you might imagine, this was mostly a cutting and tying effort - with little room for creativity. And as it turned out, there wasn't much need for my super-warm creations in the homeless community!

One day, I was struck by a French Braid quilt top that was hanging on the wall at Mill End Fabrics. Under it was Jane's book. I skimmed it and was particularly taken by the words: Appropriate for a beginner. And I was a beginner!

I lucked out and produced a lovely twin-bed-sized quilt (though I'll never know how much the friend who did the quilting may have altered it in order to save the project).

On a wave of (presumed) success, I started to construct a more complicated quilt. Alas, I didn't have the knowledge/technique/experience/insight to see the problems before I got bogged down in them. (This quilt is still my dominant UFO.)

As a result of both my success and my failure, I vowed to take my time and learn quilting from the ground up. My guide has been Harriet and Carrie Hargrave's books, "QUILTING ACADEMY, Volumes 1 and 2." (I've recommended these books multiple times on the QB, but I want everyone to know that I have nothing to gain!)

Despite my initial conviction to do so, I haven't followed these books slavishly. While I've not leaped ahead in their curriculum, I have used the basics I learned in Volume 1 to experiment with bargello and tessellating stars quilts. Darned if the basics I learned didn't make me successful in these "outside" adventures ;-)

I should point out that, unlike many of you, neither my mother nor either of my grandmothers knew how to sew. And I'm 60 years old! To the degree that I know how to sew (use a sewing machine) goes back to a Home Economics class I took in 7th grade. To the degree that our children and grandchildren learn and appreciate the art ... well, it's up to us to teach them!

My sis and I both decided to try quilting. I made a small princess quilt....just squares......for my DGD. Sis made three and decided she didn't like it. Five years later I'm still going strong.