Getting Started

I have been sewing practically all my life. My grandmother, Anna Elise Bruce Miller, was a professional seamstress and she peaked my interest at an early age. I remember "making" a shirt for my dad with her when I was very little, although I think she did most of the sewing. I made some of my own clothes when I visited my other grandmother, Annie Laurie Gragg Mullins, in Alabama. Handwork has been my passion, though. I have loved knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, counted cross stitch and even tried my hand at jewelry making.

So this summer it was with a great deal of excitement that I went to visit my friend, Lisa Ellis, to borrow her sewing machine and begin to learn to quilt.  I went to her house expecting to be there for a couple of hours. Lisa was so generous with her time and she taught me so much in one day.  I learned to use the rotary cutter, first on one piece of fabric at a time and later on multiple layers. I learned to chain piece and the importance of a quarter inch seam.  As we worked over the next eight and a half hours, we almost finished a quilt top.

My first quilt top was a "Slash and Dash" or "Slice and Dice" or "Stack and Whack" pattern. Basically the idea is to stack about 12 square of various colors and patterns on top of each other and slice through all of them with the rotary cutter. Because that thickness would be difficult to cut through all at once, we did it in 3 stacks and used freezer paper to cut a template so all slices would be identical. When we finished cutting, we took one piece of the top square and put it on the bottom of the stack. Then I sewed the two new halves together. Now each square had two different colors. I learned how to steam my seams. (Lisa was always teaching.) Next we cut the new stack and moved one piece of each of the top two squares to the bottom. Then I sewed the new squares together. I think we made four or five slices through the squares. I ended up with multicolored blocks that looked intricately pieced.

Next I learned the function of the design wall and a reducing glass. Lisa showed me how to position the pieces, label them and play with the design. She suggested keeping a digital camera handy to take pictures of each arrangement, in order to be able to replicate it later.  I was blown away by the reducing lens which allows you to look at the pattern all at once. It really made colors jump out at me that were too close together.

Once the design was decided upon, Lisa showed me how to sash. Ever the generous soul, she pulled some fabrics from her stash and we picked a pattern we liked that complemented the color scheme. We didn't get the whole top sashed, but we cut all of the pieces and I took it home to finish.

Then Lisa went away for summer vacation and I finished the top and put a pieced border around it.  My "Stack and Whack" was a great beginner project and I learned so much. It is currently a UFO (Unfinished Object), but someday I will sandwich and quilt it.