my quilting journey

Last night I had the privilege and pleasure to talk about my quilting journey at the SA Guild. It was a difficult task trying to select some information, photographs and quilts to present a reasonable and representative picture in a short time. Apart from showing up how far I have come with my quilting, making a short Powerpoint presentation showed me how far technology has advanced. I scanned a couple of childhood photos (black and white) to put in. But the better pictures of some of the earlier quilts were taken as slides which I am not currently able to convert. That is how entries had to be submitted, but the cost and time delay getting them developed meant you weren't always sure of a good picture. What a great invention the digital camera has turned out to be - you can click away and discard the mistakes. It is so useful while working on a project too, as you can snap colour combinations and pattern variations to compare or to refer back to.

I took along a few quilts to speak about including 5 large ones which were hung on the side wall of the hall. It was quite a site to see them all hanging together - I just wish I had remembered to take a photo before they were pulled down!


Here is the "What not to do quilt". I made a couple of small quilts as a child but here is the first 'real' one - a queensize from family scraps made in 1979. I knew nothing about block patterns, or basting, or quilting all over, and the polyester batting was nearly 2" thick. It was a nightmare to handle. I machine quilted in the ditch around the 9 blocks and managed to get huge pleats in the back. The uncaught batting on one side rolled up on washing and had to be teasd out and tacked in place. The front looked OK -... and here is the back. You can see the later tacking to hold the batting in place. It wouldn't have been a problem if there was some quilting there!
I've come a long way since then...