Quilts.

Very recently I have started trying my hand at quilting. I thought to myself one day, "why not give this a try." Long story short, I tried.

My Great-Grandma Russell made quilts. They ranged from queen-sized to little doll blankets for my sister and I. I remember going down to Kansas to visit her and find her sitting on her couch with a shoebox full of fabric squares, stitching them all together. My little quilt she made me is still at my parents' house - I really should bring that back up here.

When I was younger - I can't remember the exact age - my Aunt and I started a project just because we were bored one day. We started a yo-yo quilt. To begin with it was really fun cutting out all the circle pieces needed for the yo-yos. Then I started actually making the yo-yos. Not too long after we started it I got bored with it - being the young kid I was - and she finished it. It's a really fun quilt. She used to have it in her guest room on the bed for a long time.

Last summer I went to a quilt show with the ladies in my family. Seeing all those beautiful and intricate quilts made me want to make something just as beautiful. Soon after that weekend I bought some fabric, stitching needles, pins, and all the other stuff I'd need to make a quilt. I chose five different patterned fabrics. They're all a different green - it's my favorite color. I got right to work stenciling and cutting out the squares - 140 of them. I decided to use bigger squares for my first quilt; I thought they'd be easier to work with. As it turned out, it seemed almost too easy.

After cutting out all the squares I started hand-stitching ten squares together for each row. I don't remember why now but I ended up putting it away in a closet after the second row was complete. I burn out easily with projects that I start - even though I do always finish what I started eventually. In April my husband and I moved to Kearney and the shoebox of quilt squares came along with all my yarn and cross-stitching projects.

A couple of days ago my hands got bored while I was watching a movie so I pulled out my unfinished quilt. Earlier today I finished stitching all the squares into rows. I had fourteen rows total. I pulled out my sewing machine and set it up in the living room so I could watch TV while working. A few hours later the rows were all sewn together! It seemed to go too fast.

So now I have the quilt top done and it looks really good - maybe even a little better than a first quilt should. All I have left to do is head to the store one of these days and get a backing material and sew it on to the topper. I think I'm going to use a flannel so we can use it in the winter. Also, I've decided I'm not going to use batting inside the quilt just so we can use the quilt when it's not freezing.

Though I have given it plenty of thought, I still don't know how I'm going to do the actual quilting. I could just use the sewing machine, but I'm still pretty inexperienced with it. Then I considered hand-quilting it. That's going to take much more time, but it might be worth it. Also, I need to figure out a pattern for the stitching. Uhg, so many decisions! Maybe I'll ask my Aunt for suggestions since she's so much better than I.

When I get the backing sewn on I'll put up a picture or two so keeping coming back!