learning to quilt

By the time I was a teenager, I had learned to hand sew, to crochet and to embroider. My mother and my grandmother both created quilts during that time and one Saturday, I begged my mother to teach me to quilt. My mother had a different idea. She brought me a printed panel, batting and a piece of material for the back. She stated that when I could make the stitches on the front and back match then I would know how to quilt.

I put the three pieces together and placed them in an embroidery hoop to keep it taught. I began to stitch around the printed picture, but no matter how much I tried I could not get my stitches on the back to match the smooth, small, even stitches on the front. I decided not to pull them out but to make a quilted pillow out of the panel instead. With that in mind, it didn't matter if the stitches didn't match up.

I worked diligently on that square. As I got near the end, I burst into tears. All my hard work and I couldn't finish it without putting a major crease in it. In order to do the pillow I wanted to make, I was forced to pull all my stitches and begin again. My mother patiently explained to me that I needed to begin stitching from the center outward instead of from a corner. And so, I began again.

Over time I made many "cheaters quilts" as I called them. I learned that if I kept the materiel out of a frame or hoop and just pinned my corners and parts of the centers, I could get my stitches even on front and back. Because of the pillows I made, I also learned how to hide the closing when they were stuffed. This helped me when I made an actual quilt and was putting a border on it.

While I didn't understand that initial idea of giving me a printed panel to sew at first, my mother knew the stitching wouldn't be the only lesson I learned. Patience and quality control were in the lesson plan as well.