The topics this week are Irish Chain and Fall Quilts. I don't have a Fall quilt, but I have made an Irish Chain quilt. It was my first pieced quilt. I'm not sure who offered the class, it wasn't a quilt shop. It was the summer of 1987 and my graduate school class load was pretty light that year. My grandmother quilted and I had long wanted to learn how. So I signed up for that summer class. My fabric came from Hobby Lobby as did the rotary cutter. The teacher offered a set of plastic templates which could be used to cut strips from fabric (I have no idea if rulers even existed at that time). I actually finished the flimsy in class.
Quilting the top was a whole other issue. The flimsy got folded up and stuck with my unfinished embroidery stuff. The top moved with me from graduate school to my first job, with me when we bought our first house and made the trip to Texas when the job took us in that direction. Then one day, my 3 year old found it and asked me to finish it so it could live on her bed.
By the time my Irish Chain was quilted, I was taking quilting classes again at the local quilt shop. They helped me make the back and showed me how to prep a quilt for quilting. I handed it off to the long arm quilter at the shop. That first quilt was a UFO for 17 years. This quilt never did live on Kiddo's (aka Drama Teen) bed, by the time it was finished she'd come up something else she wanted me to make for her bed.
I supposed it's fitting that my 1000th post is about my first foray into what prompted me to start blogging in the first place. To celebrate, I have a set of polka dot fat quarters to give away.
Just leave a comment about which is your favorite Tuesday Archive posted this week over at Val's Quilting Studio. I'll pick a winner this weekend using Mr. Random Number generator, so be sure I have a way to contact you if you are a no reply blogger.
