Years ago I was hired by a local contractor to work as a carpenter's apprentice and was paired with a guy named Larry. On my first day I watched Larry trace the angle of one board on to another, and then cut the board and cut it again until it fit or until it didn't and he had to toss the wood and start over. The journeymen and experienced carpenters on the crew measured angles, cut the boards waiting at the saw—once—and hammered them into place.
Larry annoyed and frustrated me at the time because he couldn't teach me anything useful. I made him the target of resentment that I should have sent in the direction of the contractor who hired me and Larry as cheap labor. He was just a backyard carpenter who had built all kinds of things for himself and his family, coming up with his own methods to build projects. He loved working with wood; construction was just a way to make a living. Unfortunately, Larry and I didn't receive much help from the carpenters. He was a loser and I was girl. Neither of us worth their time.
These days, I look back on Larry with more kindness. I'm sort of a Larry in the quilting world—a backyard quilter. Join me below the hopelessly tangled thread for more.
DK Quilt Guild: A place for quilters to gather, share ideas, projects, and to make the world a better place, one quilt at a time. Join us and share your thoughts, projects, questions, and tips. Quilters here are at many different levels of skill. Beginners and non-quilters are welcome, too!
When I decided I wanted to quilt, I started by buying left-over fabric at garage sales, as well as cast-off curtains and sheets. I had no particular project in mind, I simply purchased what pleased me. I looked through books, taking in all the pictures of the beautiful quilts, but like a little kid not quite ready to read, didn't bother with with the words.
It took me ages to muster the courage to actually cut into all the beautiful fabric I had collected. My earlier attempts at sewing were abysmal—lots of wasted fabric on clothing that ultimately didn’t fit anyone. Fortunately, like the materials for quilting, most of my sewing supplies came from garage sales and thrift stores, so the waste wasn’t as painful as it could have been, but the experience put me off sewing anything for a long time.
Finally I talked myself into getting started. I borrowed some templates (squares and triangles that came with a book for a particular quilt) and a rotary cutter, took a deep breath and began, using a picture, but no instructions.
My cutting was more like slashing with my rotary cutter often straying from the straight edge of the templates, and pieces that should have been uniform came out different sizes, even when I cut in layers. I sweated over getting points and lines to match, I mismatched pieces, sewed wrong sides to right sides, and took things apart too many time to mention. The process was painfully slow, but I figured things out and managed to put together a small bow-tie quilt that looks kind of good flung over the back of a chair.
Having a finished product taught me that quilting is much more forgiving than sewing garments. A quilt might have to be big enough to cover a bed or a lap, but it doesn't have to fit—anyone can enjoy it. As frustrating as my first attempt had been, I wanted to keep going.
My mother saw my first quilt and gave me a gift card to JoAnne’s for my birthday (she's sews clothes beautifully, but is afraid of quilt making. Go figure). I bought myself extra blades for my cutter, a good-sized board, and some rulers. Life got a little easier. A friend who quilts cued me into the “20 mph test” to help me feel better about my efforts:
Hang the finished quilt from your porch and drive by your house at 20 miles an hour. If the quilt looks good, you’ve done well.
At the very least, I've learned to take time to stand back from my work. Getting my head out of the the threads and the scraps of fabrics does wonders. My quilts are far from perfect, but they past that test.
I really gained confidence in my quilting when I started giving them as gifts. Handmade gifts are always special; quilts are extra special. Everyone I’ve given a quilt to has been moved that I would go to so much trouble (they have no idea), and no one has noticed all the little mistakes that screamed at me while I was working. I cherish the quilts that have have been gifted to me.
I made the following three quilts for each of my children, which was my primary motivation for learning the craft. A true labor of love, I put them together on a hand-cranked sewing machine (I have a thing for human-powered machinery) and hand quilted them. I enjoy needlework, so it's kind of a pay off for me after all the other work is done. Seems I tend to do blocks set off by sashing. I might break from that pattern someday:
Showing you some detail so you can see the jog in the sashing on the left where there should be a straight line. No one has ever noticed it, least of all my son who pays the highest praise when he curls up in it to read or watch TV. Also, I like the chickens on the red fabric:
My latest quilt is for the DK Quilts for Detroit VA Hospital Service Project 2014. I used an electrically-powered machine to put it together and will either tie it or use a machine to quilt it. It's loosely based on the second quilt above, but for some reason—like my usual lack of planning—I made nine squares instead of 12 so didn't end up with the rectangle I needed to create a quilt with the correct dimensions. I wasn't interested in making more squares, so I put the quilt away for awhile. After some time away and some thought, I improvised and added strips of triangles to either end.
When I first started cutting this quilt, my daughter said she wasn't sure the colors were going to work together, and I kind of agreed with her, but when we stood back from the nearly finished project, we were pleasantly surprised. I plan to bind it with the same green as the sashing (it's wrinkled and covered in threads—keep driving...).
Quilts don’t have to be perfect unless you’re coming up against a county fair judge and then it’s super difficult to please (I tried by entering a few quilt square contests), so I aim to please myself, and my skills have improved along the way. Quilters are generally a nicer bunch of people than the carpenters I worked with—always willing to share techniques, shortcuts, and what they’ve discovered through trial and error. Some quilters are highly organized and precise, others not so much, but few care and many are supportive.
So here's to the backyard quilters and carpenters who simply want to create beautiful things, and who are willing to take the plunge for better or worse. Larry wasn't such a bad guy. His backyard carpentry brought him his own kind of joy, and that's what really counts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would you like to write a future DK Quilt Guild diary? Please join in, we would love to have you! Simply volunteer within the comments. Thanks!
DKQG Diary Schedule
04/13 -- trkingmomoe~Sampler Quilt Along
04/20 -- winifred3
04/27 -- trkingmomoe~Sampler Quilt Along
05/04 -- Sara R
05/11 -- trkingmomoe~Sampler Quilt Along
05/18 -- OPEN
05/25 -- trkingmomoe~Sampler Quilt Along
06/01 -- OPEN