California Dreaming Quilt

May 2003 : 38 x 38

I have been wanting to start quilting for several years now. A good friend decided that she also wanted to learn to quilt. We decided to give each other a quilting class for Christmas 2002.

I decided that I wanted to capture the feelings of the water and foliage of California in my quilt. Never one to follow conventions, I decided that I needed to dye my fabric to get the look I wanted.

I took a 4 week introductory machine quilting class. We started with techniques for cutting and piecing our quilt. Next we learned how to create our quilt sandwich and machine quilt our quilt. The final task was to attach the binding and sleeve. I don't think this quilt will win any blue ribbons, but I have learned a lot. The instructor gave us hints after we finished piecing on how to pin to get nicer corners, which I was able to use to make my borders line up nice. I need to practice quilting with my machine to get the right tension and needle selection for perfect machine quilting. All in all, I am very happy with the way my fabric and quilt turned out.

Click here to see how the fabric was made.

Since I wasn't sure if I would make many mistakes in my first quilt I dyed extra fabric. With all this extra fabric l decided to reduce the size of the quilt pattern and make two 20 inch pillows for us. They became quilts 2 & 3.

With 3 projects under my belt I decided to make some quilts for Christmas 2003 gifts.