Picking My Project

This past Tuesday, I went to Ragtime Fabrics to schedule my first sewing lesson. Possible projects are endless, of course, but as a beginner, I knew I didn't want to choose something that would go up and over my head. Also, if you can relate, I'm much more likely to soak up information that I'm interested in versus something I'm not. Naturally, I needed to choose something that I could relate to.

I sat with Gloria and we discussed my previous sewing experiences, which consist of playing around on my mom's sewing machine. Obviously, nothing complicated or even valuable. Needless to say, I don't know how to sew a button on a shirt. I'm so clueless recently I asked my friend Kara to sew up the holes in my wool coat. Overall, I am in desperate need of this valuable knowledge. So I am a beginner. Although I have no prior experience, I am eager to learn and most of all passionate.

Well, after talking with Gloria, we both decided the perfect project to begin with would be a lap quilt. Mostly because recently, my mom has become interested in quilting and is dying to learn. And like me, she's afraid of learning the process. She's been so eager to learn, that's she gone out and bought tons of books and supplies. And like I said, she has her own machine; she just doesn't know how to make that first cut. Therefore, my inspiration for this lap quilt is not only to teach myself, but to help my mom fulfill her dream of learning to sew as well.

Once we figured out what my project was, I picked a pattern from a quilting book my mom had let me borrow. The book is called "First-Time Quiltmaking: Learning To Quilt in Six Easy Lessons". Well, as you've learned already, I don't have a lot of faith in myself, particularly with something new, so I suggested to Gloria that we start with a very simple pattern - a single-patch quilt. Gloria reassured me that all the other patterns in this book were beginner level and that I shouldn't feel limited to just one or two fabrics. Well, when it came to picking out my fabrics and I couldn't choose less than three different fabrics, Gloria reassured me that I didn't have to choose. One of the other patterns was called a four-patch quilt, where I could use all three fabrics. Of course you can imagine how absolutely excited I was not only learning, but that I didn't have to choose! Particularly with fabric, I find it so difficult to choose between the hundreds of fabrics available, especially offered in this fabric shop. The choices are endless, but it was wonderful that Gloria helped me so that I was able to use all three.

I'm including a picture of the fabrics with this post so you can get a feel of what they look like. I had a difficult time matching fabrics together because you always see either quilts that match or quilts that are completely random, but they still somehow come back around and look amazing.

Well my first lesson is this afternoon, so look forward to hearing all about it!