January block of the month

Making a quilt is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.  My Mema quilts and her quilts are so special – I love looking at them and hearing the stories behind them.  I knew I wanted to learn how so I could make some too, but if you’ve been a reader of my blog from the beginning then you know that I just learned how to sew (so quilting has been out of the question!).  So I can finally sew, but quilting seemed like a big undertaking and not something I wanted to try just yet, until…I found out about these free Block of the Month online quilting videos from Craftsy.

Since it was free I decided to sign up.  Each month you make two quilt blocks and the instructor walks you through the process with a step-by-step video.  I watched the first video and it didn’t seem so difficult so I decided to add “make a quilt” to my 2012 bucket list and bought/borrowed the materials I needed for the first two blocks.  Tonight I drug out my sewing machine, set everything up, and got to work.

The first block (an asterisk) was pretty hard – I was having problems with the sewing machine at first and I wasn’t quite sure how to cut the fabric correctly.  I was frustrated and afraid that this project was too much to handle; however, the end result was better than I expected, not exactly perfect but pretty good for my first one.  The second block (wonky pound sign) was much easier and quicker, I think because it didn’t have to be so exact.

Enough talking…behold my first two quilt blocks!

you can see that one of the strips doesn’t quite line up correctly (the line y=x if you’re a total math nerd like me) and it puckers in the middle a little, but overall I’m pleased

this one was a lot easier – and the white pieces lay flatter in real life, I just didn’t iron them down enough before this picture

I’m really excited about my quilt now!  Tomorrow I’m going to go out and buy the fabric I need for the two blocks for February and I hope to get those knocked out this week, too.  I’m on my way to a real quilt!