Putting Things In Perspective

In order to recognize what I've accomplished and where I've come from, I am posting a picture of what I consider my first quilt. I sewed a couple very, very simple baby quilts prior to this quilt, but this was my very first full size, pieced block quilt EVER!! I finished this in November of 1995. Previous to making this quilt, I was an avid cross stitcher and I had been making a few of my clothes for probably 10 or 12 years. I had found some quilt books at the library that I found myself checking out over and over again. They were published by a local quilter named "Marsha McCloskey"! You have to understand that I was only a few years married with a young toddler and quite, quite limited funds. Quilting classes were completely out of the realm of possibility and besides, I'd been sewing my own clothes for years, so I wasn't totally unprepared for the task. hehe I bought my five pieces of fabric at JoAnne Fabrics and came home and cut this quilt out with my scissors and traced paper templates. Understanding the quilt directions was bad enough, but buying the fabric alone was a nightmare! I was used to matching colors in that decorating/80's way and I just about threw up my hands and gave up several times before I even left the store with my purchase. Considering that I had a very active toddler at this point, I must have been very determined.:) However, I persevered and managed to get to the point where I had all my rail fence blocks cut out and pieced together, then sewn together into a quilt top. Then I was stuck. No money for batting. I was absolutely terrified to scrape together the money to buy some and THEN POSSIBLY RUIN IT!! I ended up laying my quilt top over the front of a comforter I had with a tear in the top fabric and pinning it with my large diaper pins--maybe a dozen of them? (I did all this while my husband was away from home working somewhere--I didn't want any input whatsoever from anyone, anywhere.*wink Miss Independence ya think?) I had a vague idea from years and years ago of watching someone tie a quilt with yarn, so I decided to go for it. That turned out well, so I determined that I'd take my excess quilt top fabric and pull it over to the back, turn it once and stitch it on the machine. I was exhilarated and sweaty and also extremely aware of how much I really needed to learn.sigh! Who knew I could be so resourceful? Certainly not me. I am always, always a chicken heart when I have to throw off my security blanket and step out into the great UNKNOWN.:)