My First Quilt - Every Quilt Tells a Story!

My first quilt was made in 1973 with my Gramma. Gramma was a seamstress from England who taught me to sew when I was a very little (can’t remember how old I was, she gave me a needle, thread, some scraps, and taught me to make doll clothes.). Since I was too young to use her Featherweight, she taught me to hand sew everything. To this day, I still know how to hand stitch in many different styles with perfect hand stitching. I always wanted to please my Gramma, so I worked hard and ripped a lot of unsatisfactory stitches out. 

In 1973, after making my clothes for Jr. High and High School Gramma said I was ready for my FIRST quilt! Since Gramma grew up in England, and then raised her family during the Depression, Gramma taught me how to use all my scraps. She never wanted any fabric (or thread) to go to waste. It was not a quilt from a pattern, just blocks sewed into rows and hand-tied. Each block was either from one of my dresses, or Gramma’s. It is not beautiful, nor perfect, but it stays in my bedroom reminding me of all the visits that turned into sewing lessons with my Gramma. 

We would sit and stitch by hand or on her Featherweight while she told me all the stories about life as a little girl in England and what a pain in the neck my mother was when she was little. Her patience, her dumb cat named “Butter” (who wouldn’t stay off whatever we were working on), coupled with tea, biscuits (they were cookies to me), and stories are my precious memories of quilting and sewing with Gramma. That ugly little quilt is a treasure of memories that makes it a priceless work of art, albeit not perfect. 

I learned to sew first, then to quilt, and I haven’t stopped quilting since! I am now a quilt teacher and lecturer and I always give credit to Gramma when I teach students how to hand-stitch a binding with perfect stitches. My ugly first quilt reminds me constantly of Gramma's abundant knowledge and even more abundant patience. She always encouraged me to keep sewing (even though I only had boys). She never criticized my work, but always found something positive to say about it while telling me how to make my next project better. To this day I encourage my students to finish their project, even if it's not perfect - just try to make the next one a little better. My ugly first quilt keeps Gramma close, she, who taught me to love sewing, quilting, thread, stories, cookies, and tea!  But, oh, how I really LOVE THREAD!!!