A crafty first

I've wanted to learn to quilt for such a long time.  However, I'm not one to have confidence in following instructions, even with pictures, so I have a friend "Martha" over at Plot to Plate who is hosting weekly lessons for myself and a few other friends.

It didn't start off well.  The first week was a chore with working out how to use the rotary cutter and mat on the fabric with confidence. Let's just say I got a little frustrated and relied on Martha to help. I realise now that a 6 month pregnant belly gets in the way a bit.  I also couldn't get my head around the maths or how important it was to be soooo accurate with the cutting and sewing part.  The quick unpick was used rather often.

I got there in the end.  We had a second lesson this week and I went off with a hiss and a roar and got lots of 9 patches done no trouble at all.

Here's what I've achieved so far.

These long strips here are all sewn together into a 12" block which there will be x6 of in the middle of the quilt.

These are the 9 patches, 6" wide which I will use to border the quilt with the triangles that we are making next week.

I decided to do a quilt for the new baby's cot. Even though we know it's a girl, I went more neutral so that this can go into her memory box for when she has her own children.

I've got this thing where I want to have a couple of things in there for each of the children to hand on to their own. Miss E's got a beuatiful hand knitted shawl (bought by her granny and knitted by a talented Aunt) and a hand knitted cardi by me. Master L was given a beautiful cot quilt by my lovely friend Martha and a little first size hand knitted cardi by me. This baby, who we are struggling to find a name for (all suggestions welcome!), will have this quilt and a hand knitted cardi. I love the thought that these may be used by generations to come.