Quilting!

Not too long ago, Laura at the Shore House took us all on a quilting adventure thanks to the 2-hour baby quilt class at M Avery Designs in Hoboken.

I've always wanted to quilt and despite the Mom having given me a whole boatload of quilter's supplies for last year's birthday (and the Husband even setting me up with a quilt kit from Pennington Quilt Works) I hadn't been ready to take the plunge.

What can I say, I looked at the quilt kit and the instructions seemed like reading a stereo manual. It just made no sense. Not to mention that I was actually afraid to start cutting the quilt fabric. What if I didn't make each square square? What if they were different sizes? How could I make my measurements precise enough? Oh, the self-doubt! While Terry Zeigler was known around the yearbook staff and newspaper staff rooms in High School as having the talent to be able to cut a straight line no matter what, I'm not so good with the straight lines.
When I saw Laura's post I thought, this is too good to be true! Look at this fabulous quilt! Knowing that the Mom was scheduled to be in town I thought, "we've got to try this!" So, we signed up, I visited the good ladies in Pennington and got some great quilt fabric and the whole week leading up to the class I was completely incredulous and kept saying how I couldn't believe we'd actually finish a quilt by classes' end. The Mom agreed.

When we arrived in Hoboken (which is notorious for having NO parking) we managed to snag a spot in front of the store! We arrived at the class and it was just us and another quilting beginner. Our instructor handed us out pattern blocks and off we were! The concept of a two hour baby quilt class is really a great way to get your feet wet. You essentially have to throw out the window all of your OCD or type A tendencies and treat it as an Amazing Race style challenge, as Laura suggested. (One vestige, however, of my control-freak nature was that I did, indeed, bring my own scissors). I cut out my squares, proceeded to pin and sew. Not all of my lines were straight, but somehow most of my seams are straight. So my quilt may be more of a rhombus than a perfect square, I'm still pretty darn happy. I have to say, I now, thanks to M Avery Designs, have a basic understanding of how quilts work. Now that I know what I can do in a mere two hours, I know that if I put my mind to it, actually use an iron and perhaps my rotary cutter and lucite squares I can totally do this again.
My next challenge will be to work on the Pennington Quilt Works kit (which involves monkey fabric!) Oh, and let's not forget that we're going back to Hoboken later this month to do a handbag class with Miss Leda!