It's the last Friday of the month, which means it's time for a My First Quilt interview 😊 Today Joanne Kerton shares the story of her first quilt.
A self-taught quilter who has been quilting for almost 25 years, Joanne enjoys learning about design through quilt-making. Her designs are a little bit modern, a little bit traditional, appealing and accessible to quilters of all skill levels. She firmly believes that quilting should be a joyful endeavor.
And now, here's Joanne (circa 2002) and her first quilt!
What year did you make your first quilt? What prompted you to make it?
I started my first quilt in late 2000, prompted by my brother's engagement. I wanted to give a wedding gift, of course. I also wanted to learn to quilt. Money was too tight to do both. What if I used the gift budget for quiltmaking tools and supplies? I'd learn to quilt AND have a handmade wedding gift for my brother and new sister-in-law. It was a perfect plan. It was rather more time-consuming than I had expected, especially while pregnant and running around after a one-year-old. The quilt was finished and gifted in 2002, a year after the wedding, but it was appreciated and was the start of my quilting obsession.
What techniques were used in that first quilt? Did you quilt it yourself?
The blocks were foundation paper-pieced from patterns in a book by Carol Doak that I found at my local library. I traced all the foundations onto tissue paper. I think my husband helped trace some as well. I pieced the quilt in fits and starts, setting up shop on the kitchen table, putting everything away for meals then hauling the machine out again for the next sewing session. I finished the top a few months before the wedding, relieved that I'd be done on time. I then tried machine quilting, was thoroughly frustrated by it, and decided to hand quilt the quilt, resigned to delivering the gift a little later than planned.
Who taught you to make the quilt?
My friend Carol dabbled in quilting but found quilting rulers confusing. She assured me paper piecing was the way to go because cutting didn't need to be terribly accurate. She directed me to books at the library, and I taught myself from there. I used books and trial and error to figure out the hand quilting. I'm grateful the owner of the local quilt shop kindly took the time to teach me how to bind the quilt, because the books weren't terribly clear about that part!
Are the colours you chose for your first quilt ones you would still choose today?
I still like the colours, but I would probably vary the scale of the prints more today. I also would probably choose a block background with some texture instead of a true solid.
Did you fall in love with quilting right away? Or was there a gap between making the first quilt and the next one?
I have had at least one quilt in progress since that first one, though in the early years the production rate was very slow, on the order of one finish every couple of years. Quilting edged out other crafts very quickly. To be fair, my toddler had a close encounter with a knitting needle that could have turned out very badly, so knitting needles disappeared for a while. Without that incident, knitting might have edged out quilting, or competed for equal time.
Where is the quilt now?
I'm fairly certain my brother and sister-in-law still have it. I saw it on the back of their living room couch during a visit a couple of years ago.
Is there anything you wish you could go back and tell yourself as you made that first quilt?
First, check the block placement! I had a layout planned to alternate block patterns and colors. Somewhere along the way I messed it up and didn't notice until after the whole thing was quilted. Seeing the blocks in the "wrong" place still bothers me, more than 20 years later. How on earth did it not bother me enough to notice before I started the quilting?
Second, no one else will see or care about your mistakes. Do your best, but don't obsess about perfection. I think we are all our own worst critics. Those blocks in the "wrong places"? Paul and Shona don't care! At least they've never said so...
Anything else you want to share about your first quilt?
It was really, really hard to give it away! It was always meant as a gift, but I was so proud of that first effort that I very nearly kept it for myself.
Thank you for sharing your first quilt with us, Joanne! I think we can all relate to wanting to keep an intended gift quilt for ourselves 😆
