Love Story - Where do we begin?

Most of the work you have seen on my blog was done after I had been quilting for a few years.
Today I would like to share with you some of my very early work.
I sometimes hesitate to show this to people. The reason I am choosing to share it at this point is I want you to see how my journey began. Without doing this work I wouldn't be doing the work I am now.


This is my first quilt. It was a kit from Lee Wards. I started it when I was expecting my oldest son. I did not finish it until his birthday - his 29th birthday!



When I started to quilt there was a very limited selection of fabrics available for quilters. The fabrics in this quilt were from the Grannie's Trunk Collection which was one of the first coordinated fabric collections designed especially for quilters. I thought I had dyed and gone to heaven when I first saw these fabrics and bought yards of each!
I mounted it on a stretcher frame. Eventually I donated this to a church auction.



This is a simple Dresden plate. It was made from Jinny Beyers very first fabric collection.
I added borders to a 12 inch block and made a nice wedding gift for someone. Mounting it on a stretcher frame gave it more presence than just a flat quilt. Eventually I gave up giving quilts for wedding gifts when I found only 1 out of 5 of the marriages I made quilts for lasted longer than five years!

After seeing these early quilts I hope you agree I've come a long way.
When I start getting smug about how much I've improved, I stop and tell myself I couldn't be doing the work I am doing now without the wonderful fabrics we now have available to us as quilters. The commercial fabrics are so much more sophisticated today. Add to that the hand dyed and painted fabrics we can buy or create ourselves and there is no comparison to where I started my journey.
Yes it has been and continues to be a Love Story as I create my art.


Today's puzzle is the Dresden plate quilt.