The quilt that started it all

A desire to make a quilt started it all, started the journey and made me want to create a handmade business. There have been a few stumbling blocks on the way, but a small lap quilt was the ignition.

My history with sewing

Since I can remember, sewing and knitting have surrounded me, and I have dabbled in both. One grandmother preferred knitting, the other sewing. While I can cast on and knit a few rows, pick up dropped stitches and cast off again, I could never master a purl stitch or follow a pattern. As for crochet, I am useless, yet my grandmother was exceptionally patient and an excellent teacher. I didn’t have the aptitude. Sewing was a bit more of a draw, and I could hand stitch doll clothes, but it wasn’t something that interested me when it came to sewing machines. I had tried my mum’s sewing machine several times, and I never liked it; there was just something that niggled. I didn’t get the results I wanted or liked. The seam ripper was my friend.

Making the quilt

It was only in later life that I got the sewing bug again. I think it was one afternoon disappearing down the YouTube rabbit hole trying to find something to watch that quilting videos came up. I watched intently and figured I’ll give this a go. I headed to the family’s favourite fabric shop, known to us as El Kilo, where you paid for fabric by weight instead of the metre. The shop is now known as Abakhan’s and has two floors, one for fabric sold by the metre and the ground floor for fabric sold by weight.

Fabric sold by weight is the end of line stock or remnants, rows upon rows, bins upon bins, an Aladdin’s cave of material. Every fabric hoarder’s dream and every fashion student’s saving grace. Because here you can find some unusual and big pieces at a reasonable price. I looked at cotton and polycottons, not yet knowing the distinction between the two or quilting rules. I chose fabrics by eye, and if I thought they would be interesting for just making a simple square patch quilt. I kept the colour palette simple, pink, grey, black and white. I wisely invested in a ruler, rotary blade and self-healing cutting mat (tools I still would not be without to this day).

I got home, pressed my fabric, squared it off, and cut. I placed the cut squares on the floor and played with the pattern, and the cat proved very useful sitting in the middle of it all (not!). Setting up the sewing machine on the dining room table, I chain stitched my squares, pressed, and then sewed the next row. I did this until I completed the top sheet, a decent size for a lap quilt. I batted it and quilted a simple straight stitch diagonally through the squares. Several times, I would find it difficult to manoeuvre the quilt through the sewing machine, only to realise that I had managed to push through the towel the sewing machine was sitting on! That took some time to unpick.

Once quilted, I needed to bind the quilt. I turned to YouTube and found out how to do it. I cut and sewed, and five years on, I still have two to three metres of it left. I flipped the binding over and clumsily sewed it with the sewing machine. I gave the quilt to my mum, who was chuffed and still uses it today.

Where did it take me?

The quilt, in general, is passable for a first attempt. Yes, it has faults, and as I look at it now, I know I would do things differently. I learned that I still have a thirst for learning and knowledge, and I enrolled in a night class in beginner’s sewing, which has given me a good grounding in basic techniques. My knowledge helped me write better content for two companies. During the pandemic, I saw myself relocated from marketing to a workwear department that desperately needed someone with fabric handling knowledge and how to embroider and print. This move would become permanent; however, I would leave to start Sew True Colours after a year.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.