Sunday, June 24, 2012

Conquering Your Fears

I put off trying quilting for a while because it scared me. All that precision and mathematics. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not bad a math... it's just, I used to think I would never have the patience for anything like that. When I had my baby shower about three and a half years ago, I received two quilts handmade with love-- one from a coworker and the other from my mother-in-law's best friend. I admired the hard work that went into making them, and I cherished the gifts made with so much love. But I never would have the patience for something like that.

Fast forward about a year and a half. I started making cakes for family and friends, and I wasn't half bad from the get-go. Everyone kept telling me that I must have a lot of patience. Me? Doubtful. Then again, perhaps I do.
The teapot cake I made for my neice's 5th birthday 2 years ago.

Then in September of this past year I was in JoAnn's waiting to get some fabric cut with my daughter in the shopping cart. I started talking with the woman behind me in line who asked if I quilted. I told her no, that I didn't have the patience. She encouraged me to give it a try. I tucked the conversation away in my mind. When I found out I was pregnant again, about a month later, I decided to give it a try.. nothing fancy, just a kit for beginners. It would be enough to have to worry about corners matching up without dealing with triangles and other sorts of craziness! 

Well obviously, I loved the experience because two weeks after I finished my first top, I made another! Now two quilts down, and I started this Beginner's Quilt Along hosted by Quilting Gallery. I'm so glad I did. This week I learned how to make those pesky triangles, and honestly they were super easy. I wasn't able to make them the way I was instructed because I couldn't find my marking pen, but I used my brain (man that feels good every once in a while!) and figured out another way. And when I sewed the whole thing together it was as perfect a block as I could have wished for. All the corners lined up and everything!

Last week I followed a blog hop that was giving tutorials on Dresdens and I thought to myself, no... never. Honestly, though, after seeing how stupidly easy doing triangles were with proper instruction and tools I would totally give other shapes a try. But appliques, those might be a different beast. Baby steps, right?

1 comment:

  1. Your block turned out perfect. Just by looking at what you've done so far I think that applique is going to come to you naturally also. My first blocks weren't nearly as nice as yours!

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