Let me introduce myself!
Hello, and welcome! I’m so excited you’re here! Since this is my first blog post, I thought I’d go ahead and introduce myself!
My name is Kelley, and I’ve been a sewist my whole life, but I only started quilting about 15 years ago. For many years, I was “Quilt Curious” but it looked so complicated! There were so many little bits and pieces, and the layers seemed confusing – how did they get that stuffing stuff in there??? – and I really didn’t know where to start. These were the days before social media including YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook really took off very much, and I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a “Local Quilt Shop”, much less that I could take quilting classes there! And forget about online courses on the topic! So I didn’t know any quilters and had no idea how to even go about learning how to do it.
Eventually, I got married and had a baby. When my son was an infant, my mother-in-law made him a quilt. It had bright neon fish and sashing and cornerstones, and it was absolutely the most beautiful quilt I’d ever seen! She did it all by hand, too (she’s a hand quilter, and let me tell you, that’s a whole other level! I am strictly machine, because I don’t much enjoy hand work, but I have nothing but respect for hand quilters!!!), but she assured me that I could make a quilt, too, with a machine, and that it really wasn’t that hard. Then she told me about this magical place called a Local Quilt Shop (or LQS), and that I could probably find a quilting class for beginners there, and well, the rest is, as they say, history.
Over the years, I’ve made many, many quilts. Bed sized quilts (even king sized!) throw quilts, baby quilts, mini quilts, even quilted pot holders. I’ve used a variety of methods from simple patchwork, to foundation paper piecing, to english paper piecing, to applique, to t-shirt quilts. I’ve branched out into totes, bags, and purses; pincushions; throw pillow covers; and even some quilted garments. I’m by no means the best quilter in the world, or the most prolific, or the most creative. But I’ve tried a lot of things, and I’ve learned a lot about the process. But I still remember that feeling that it’s just WAY too complicated and I could never learn how to do it. If you’re a new or beginner quilter, or even “Quilt Curious”, I want to help you learn about quilting, and convince you that you absolutely CAN do it, that it’s not actually that complicated or terrifying, and that there’s a quilting method and style out there that’s all yours!
So that’s about it for introducing myself. I thought tomorrow I’d do a brief introduction to quilting. Stay tuned!