The Beginning

The beginning... and possibly the end. The last time I tried blogging, I got exactly this far and then... nothing. So I make no promises.

However, I decided to try again because my friend Lenny caught me buying fabric at JoAnn's for a quilt. I have never made a quilt. I have never seen a quilt being made. No close relative, female or otherwise, has made a quilt. I have no close friends who have made a quilt. I have never taken a class, and I do not have a mentor. I did buy a pamphet about quilts... anyway, Lenny seemed to think I should record the Saga of the Quilt, so I shall begin.

I decided to make the quilt for the bed-- queen sized, so this is looking like a massive quilt. We just bought this house, and the walls are a yellowy browny goldy color and the carpet is charcoal. The only color that I think would be nice with those colors is red, so I bought LOTS of little -- fat quarters, I think they are called-- pieces of fabric in the red family, with some black and some creamy browny yellowy colors as accents. No pink.

I have 18 fabrics. I think I may have gone a little overboard, and I am already feeling slightly overwhelmed.

You see, I am not sure what shape to make the pieces... I know I have to make bigger blocks out of the pieces, and then sew those blocks together. I am wavering between squares (easy, but maybe boring), hexagons (neat shape, but probably a bitch to sew), or something called a "Crazy Quilt," which actually seems to be pretty easy, but the amounts of fabric that I have totally don't fit with the requirements of the piece. It also seems to be a pretty rigid pattern, and that would be stressful to deal with. But if I can loosen up a bit, I think the crazy quilt thing may be the most fun if I tell myself I don't have to do exactly what the directions say.

And the hexagons could be for my second quilt, which will be a Charm quilt-- a cool idea, in which no two patches are the same. I can use the scraps from the first quilt for that one, too.

A little while ago, I stuck most of the fabric in the washer on Cold, and then in the dryer. Now it looks like the dryer is finished, so have a great night!