A quilter at last

This is not the first patchwork quilt I’ve started, but it is the first one I’ve finished.

I fell in love with patchwork quilts on a trip into Amish country as an impressionable teenager during a family holiday in the USA.  I came back from that holiday and immediately ordered a book about patchwork.  It would be a few more years before I started my first quilt (a log cabin design which over ten years later I still haven’t finished).  When I was given some gorgeous vintage fabrics for Christmas I knew that I wanted to try patchwork quilting again.

For some time I had wanted to try the Ohio Star block and leafing through some old patchwork quilting books I found a lovely design for a small quilt using a combination of a variation on the Ohio Star block pattern and a framed Nine Patch block pattern.   

This is a simple variation of the Ohio Star pattern block. Click here if you would like to read a brief history of the Ohio Star Quilt on ehow.com.

The finished quilt measures 57x57cm

Like any budding quilter I have managed to accumulate a stash of fabrics over the years, either through unwanted fabric donated to me by others or fabric left over from my previous projects.  A quick rummage through my collection uncovered the dark blue fabric used to frame the Nine Patch blocks and which is also used as the backing fabric.

 As this was my first attempt at quilting (the sewing together of the three layers) I decided to keep the quilting design straightforward and so I used a simple grid design, crossing in the centre of each patchwork block.

The quilting pattern stands out on the back of the quilt

All the sewing was done by hand, except the binding, which was machine stitched to the front side, then folded over the raw edge of the quilt and hand sewn to the back.  Mum taught me how to do these mitered corners.  I still have some practice to do to get them perfect, but for a first attempt (with more than a bit of motherly assistance!) I'm rather pleased with them.

If you want to try this binding technique there is guidance on this quilting website explaining how to sew mitered binding, including these mitered corners.

This quilt is not perfect – the lines don’t always match up as they should and putting the binding on didn’t always go to plan.  But once I stopped scrutinizing the details, took a step back and let go of those criticisms, I found that I was pleased with the overall effect and, dare I say it, a tiny bit proud of my first little quilt.  And yes it may be small (I don’t know that it would even qualify as a lap quilt!), but I think the fact that I actually managed to finish this one just goes to show that taking baby steps can lead to beautiful results sometimes.

It's been 15 years since I fell in love with quilts and having finally completed one I feel I have at last earned the right to call myself a quilter.  And seeing as my infatuation with quilts started when I was staying in Ohio, it seems fitting that my first completed quilt should include a variation on the Ohio Star block.