My First Quilt with Hillary Cooper

It's the last Friday of April, which means it's time for another My First Quilt interview! This month Hillary Cooper shares the story of her first quilt.

Hillary is a quilt pattern writer from Vancouver, British Columbia. She's a lifelong maker and serial crafter whose modern patterns often reinvent traditional blocks through colour and improv piecing.

You can connect with Hillary at her website and on Instagram.

And now, here is Hillary's first quilt!

What year did you make your first quilt? What prompted you to make it?

I made my first very basic quilt in 1997 when I moved to Vancouver and was looking for ways to fill my time while my husband was at work. We had just moved across the country from Toronto and I had no friends or family nearby. I hoped starting a new hobby would help me to find community. That year I fell in love with quilting and followed up that first quilt with a quilt sampler class that I finished and gave to my sister as a wedding gift when she was married in 1998. 

What techniques were used in that first quilt? Did you quilt it yourself?

The first quilt was a basic 5" square block where we alternated colours in a checkerboard format and then tied the quilt at each intersection. Great quilt for practicing a 1/4" seam and many people were gifted one that year for their new babies.  

The sampler that I made tried many different techniques including traditional piecing, using templates and applique. I cut all my pieces with scissors. I'm pretty sure I didn't have a rotary cutter back then. The wedding quilt was quilted by a longarmer (must have been among some of the first) in order to make sure it would be ready for the wedding.

Who taught you to make the quilt?

I took classes at my local quilt shop called The Cloth Shop. Back then they were located in a beautiful brick and mortar on 10th Avenue. They serviced machines in the back and had classes in the basement. I actually recently found the pattern instructions from that very first quilt and the instructor had given us her home phone number!

The book Hillary used for her first sampler quilt

Are the colours you chose for your first quilt ones you would still choose today?

The very first quilt was light pink and blue which are often what I use today but the quilt for my sister which was my first "real" quilt was very much a quilt of the 90s using browns, forest green, maroon, and navy. That is not really my colour palette today. 

Did you fall in love with quilting right away? Or was there a gap between making the first quilt and the next one?

I actually did a rent to own with the first sewing machine because I knew I didn't always stick with all the crafts I liked to try. However, I was an actress back then and I loved how making a quilt allowed me to be creative but had a beginning, middle and end. The issue with acting is that most of what you do is audition and that can be frustrating and demoralizing to never get to see the work progress. I loved quilting and loved that everyone was excited to receive a piece of my work. I became obsessed and quickly moved from learning to experimenting and doing my own thing with the fabric. At the beginning that meant creating picture stories with applique. I have an early one where I found a panel and then paired it with Sunbonnet Sue and Sam as a baby quilt. That recipient is now 27 and still travels with the rag that it has become everywhere.

This early quilt of Hillary's has been well loved!

Where is the quilt now?

The very first quilt with the squares, I have no idea. I don't even remember who I gave it to. Probably a cousin. The wedding quilt is in my sister's cupboard (see my eye roll here). And the Sunbonnet Sue as I said is with my friend's daughter and I have seen it and I'm pretty sure that calling it a quilt now would be generous.

Is there anything you wish you could go back and tell yourself as you made that first quilt?

Enjoy the process. This is something that is going to bring you so much joy later in life.

Anything else you want to share about your first quilt?

If we are talking about the squares I think I might go back and make some more because it's such a great way to use scraps and play with colour. With the wedding quilt, I'm so glad that was the first major quilt I tried because it covered so many different techniques and helped me hone skills that would give me confidence.

Thank you, Hillary for sharing the story of your first quilt(s)!