My First: Ms Midge

While I'm away, I've got a few guest posts lined up of people sharing their first quilts - those first quilts where we learn a lot of lessons the hard way! Today we have Melissa from Ms Midge sharing her first pretty little quilt.

Hi!  I'm Melissa, from Ms Midge.  Today I'm looking back at my first quilt.  Admittedly, I don't have to look back far!  Only a few months ago actually.  You see, I've only been quilting a relatively short time, but in that time, I have become somewhat "hooked" on quilting, and spend a lot of my time wondering what I will do next - even though I have a steadily growing pile of UFO's.

My first "real" quilt (no short cuts!) was this gorgeous Jelly Roll Quilt, using Heather Bailey's "Fresh Cut" range.  Here's how it all came together.....

Source

I had seen a friend's jelly roll quilt many months before, so took to Google to find how to make one. I found this fabulous video tutorial which lead me successfully through each and every step. I had the whole quilt top finished in approximately one hour! My kind of quilt! 

 I then pulled out some plain white Homespun for the back, but realised I was short only about one to two inches. So I referred back to some other ideas I had seen on my trips through the web, and got all the scrappy pieces and came up with this: 

I was extremely proud of myself, as I do not do fiddly!!!

For the next two weeks I patiently awaited the arrival of my order of yardage to make the binding.  In this time, I also wondered how on earth I was going to do the binding!  But Google helped me once again!  And one Saturday, I spent the whole day (broken up in to bits and pieces due to kid's basketball matches and other odds and ends) making binding, basting the quilt (I even bought real quilting safety pins!) and then quilting the top.  I do believe I finished binding it at 11pm that night!

I can honestly say I have never been so proud of myself for something I had made!  And I cannot wait to see the recipient's face when they receive it for Christmas!

The front

The back, with pieced section

The binding with mitred corners!!!

Love it!

Since finishing this beauty, I have finished another quilt and have another TWO on the go!  I'm learning so much, and looking back on this one, I can see SO many things I could have done better! But I don't think I will ever be as proud as I was when it was done!


Congratulations Melissa, it is one gorgeous quilt!! I always recommend using precuts for a first quilt so that you don't have to worry about choosing fabrics and cutting and can instead focus on the constructing the quilt. A reminder that 100% of all sales from my Tea For Two pattern in February will be donated to my sister and her husband. It is only fitting, given the cover quilt was to be Ariella's.