My First Sewing Project!

Tuesday night my mom taught me how to use her sewing machine. I had told her that I wanted my own for Christmas and she said that we really don't have the space in our house (very true) but she would teach me how to use hers. Deal!

After a quick 20 minute lesson, I felt like I had the basics. That night I went on E-bay and found a cute baby quilting kit that came with all the fabric you need for the front, back and border of a baby quilt, and supposedly with instructions. Yes I wanted my first project to be a quilt, my mom thought I should start with a pillowcase...noo not I. I picked up the kit yesterday after school and was excited to start. I soon realized there was no instructions. The pattern it showed on the packaging was kind of boring as well (had 12 squares in random order (boring!). I thought I would wing it and make it a little nicer.

I decided to skip the washing fabric, drying fabric and even ironing fabric before starting. What can I say, I was anxious to get started. I began by cutting fabric using a rotary cutter (a lot harder than I thought it would be, that thing is sharp, and fabric stretches quite a bit). I cut 3 inch squares. Then arranged them into 3 different patterns until I found something I liked. Then I started the sewing...

I wasn't exactly sure how to start a quilt, do you start from the top, the bottom, the middle? I decided to start my way from the top row and work my way down. After some frustration I started to get the hang of it and it started to go a bit faster. Looking back I should have ironed those squares. I probably should have pre-washed the fabric as well because it might shrink a bit when I was it. Oh well, a beginners quilt is supposed to look like a beginner's quilt right??

I lost my thread from the needle too many times to count, and once stiched an entire row before realizing my bobbin was out of thread. But I think overall it turned out fairly well. I am only done the top of the quilt, so I still have to add a border and backing. Because I didn't use the giant squares the picture the kit came with my quilt is quite small. My mom also doesn't like the border fabric it came with, so I might run out some point today or tomorrow to get nicer border fabric (the closest fabric store is a 30 minute drive). I am quite excited to finish it. I will try and post a picture of my progress so far.