About to Start

I'm getting ready to start making my first ever quilt. I've wanted to quilt for a long time and just knew that I would need to shelve my desire for quilting until my little girls were a bit older. Well, my oldest will turn 10 in a few days and my youngest is now 3. They are pretty good at entertaining each other during play / free time that I think I can now steal a few moments here and there to get started on a quilt. At least I hope I can! I'm so excited!

Ever since my oldest started taking sewing classes this past fall for 4-H, I've been increasing my "stash" of fabric ~ you know, just so we'll eventually have a nice little selection to choose from for projects without having to run to the fabric store every time we want, uh make that need, to sew something.

I've sketched out a quilt that I'm going to attempt for my first one. It is going to be a twin-sized quilt for my 6 year old daughter's bed. I have another one also sketched out for her that I'll eventually make as a keepsake, but I want to get my first one under my belt before starting on a keepsake one. I'll make one for my other girls too, but my oldest is taking forever to decide what colors and style she'd like, so hers isn't ready to get started yet.

As an aside, did you know that you can use Excel to make graph paper? Oh, yes you can. You just change the size of the cells to make them smaller, like graph paper and voila! you are ready to design to your heart's content!

Anyway, I have a nice selection of cranberry and pink and gold florals that are light and airy - she really likes them. Just this morning we were placing them in different arrangements to see how they could go together best.

For her keepsake one, I eventually plan to make a quilt out of lilac, green and yellow calico fabrics, with appliques on some of the squares.

I'll post about my first quilting trials and triumphs along the way and share some pictures too!