In the Beginning

An early quilt

For as long as I can remember I have sewn. Dolls clothes as a child, my clothes as a teenager, my children’s clothes and things for the home as a young Mum. Textiles have always been part of my life. When the children were little I made very thrift bedcovers for them from a range of left over fabric from making clothes with old woolen jerseys joined together as wadding. At night we would talk about the fabrics and the stories associated with them - this was a piece from the end of year preschool dress I made for the girls. Or this was a piece of Craig’s pyjama material. It was a far cry from the quilts of today. There weren’t many classes and nothing on line so it was basically teach yourself. I don’t have any photos or parts of those early quilts but I know they were quite crude.

I finally found a course at Grandmother’s Garden a patchwork outlet that taught drafting and piecing and plucked up the courage to attend. This is the result of that course. Machine pieced, hand quilted. Twelve squares in traditional blocks drawn out on a graph pad and then cut out with seam allowances. Very traditional with a slanted colour palette very masculine I was told.