That First Monstrosity (a.k.a. Everyone Starts Somewhere)

If you have read my “About Me” page, you saw the reference to this piece. Well folks, here it is, in all it’s “seam-popping monstrous grandeur”.

Let me give you the background on how all this came to be and started my career as a quilter.

In the fall of 1997, I began work on my master’s degree in Chemical Oceanography. Having just relocated from quite some distance, I had opted to live in the graduate dorm until I could get the lay of the land. As with all dorms I’ve experienced, I had an RA (Resident Assistant). Her name was Martina and she was working on her PhD in AstroPhysics. Sounds like fun, right?

Just before the holidays that year, she took up quilting. I would see her working on it in the lounge and I’d stop and learn more about what she was doing. I asked her once, why quilting? And she said just what I needed to hear. In labs and jobs like we were working, sometimes you need something to do that allows you to be as precise or as imprecise as you want to be without caring what others think.

That Christmas, both sets of my grandparents had given me some money. I took that money, and a series of buses, to the nearest mall. I walked into Sears and walked out with the best Kenmore sewing machine I could afford. And hauled it back on the bus in the cold, wet, and dark. There, I had done it. I owned a sewing machine before I ever owned a car. In hindsight, I should have found someone with a car to give me a ride. Sewing machines are neither light nor small.

Patterns and fabrics later, the queen-sized flannel, Triple Irish Chain, double batted, tied quilt came into existence and a quilter was born. Clearly, I learned some valuable lessons from this first attempt. About the only thing I ever repeated from that first attempt was the pattern. That’s it.

Everyone has to start somewhere. I keep that first quilt to remind myself how far I have come. You will too! Don't give up. And, remember, I'm here to help you get your projects done!