Coral Reef

I took these pictures today of the first quilt I ever made. It is the quilt that we currently use on our bed and probably one of my favorite quilts thus far.

I started my adventure in quilting in December 2004, when I was still living in Michigan. One of the local fabric stores had a large stock of batik fabrics that made me want to do something with them. My best friend has been a quilter for over 10 years and looking at her work with her love of batiks inspired me to make my own quilt.

I am a huge fan of batiks, I love the way they feel, the fact that both sides can be used and the brilliant colors they display. Blue is the color I am most often drawn to, so picking out these fabrics I chose as many cool toned colors as I could find. The lady helping me was very helpful and said she liked the choices I was making. I remember thinking that the blue/purple colors looked very nice together, but that it needed a kick. She helped steer me into the oranges, which was strange for me because at that time I generally tried to stay away from orange. I had no idea about color wheels or values so I am still very thankful for her suggestions.

I cut these fat quarters into 4" squares and designed them in a repeating pattern using every bit of fabric that I had purchased. I sewed this quilt on my mom's old Singer Genie that she had from the early 70's. I think I never swore so many times! I had never used a sewing machine before and had no idea what I was doing. The thread would break every couple inches and I threaded that machine hundreds of times! There was no way I was going to be able to quilt it one the Genie, so I sent it off to be quilted. It was quilted in a beautiful edge to edge swirl pattern that inspired me to name it, "Coral Reef". In all it was a pretty good first quilting experience.