In High School, many many years ago, in a lived experience far far away, I sewed myself a single bed quilt. This quilt followed me around the world and for thirty odd years (and they were odd) I used it as "watching TV" quilt. It finally fell apart in late 2009. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. After all, it had been my constant companion since I was a teenager. Instead, in 2010 I decided to enter again this interesting world of fabric and comforting blanket type things. The first thing I did was enroll in a course at my local fabric store and begin a very simple lap quilt which I intended for my father, who in his 85th year had of late been feeling the cold. I was thinking of the room that he spent a lot of time in when I choose these colours.
It was a very simple beginners design. Square blocks sewn together into a row with an accent strip and then accent strips sewn to the top of that row and then the rows sewn together. I was quite impatient in my sewing and didn't take a lot of care with accuarcy and lining everything up. I also didn't buy a quarter inch foot until long after I'd finished this quilt. Then, when I started quilting it I put my walking foot on incorrectly. So, all in all, I learned a lot about what not to do. Still, I enjoyed myself and wanted to get better at this quilting thing.
I cut the backing too small and had to add bits to it. I had always intended the backing to look a bit patchworky. I was drawing inspiration from Amy Karol's Bend the rules quilt. But seriously, did it need to look this patchworky?
Anyway, I love my father and I hope it gave him a little bit of warmth on his legs. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get it to him until well after winter - 2010 was a crazy busy year for me. It got there eventually and when the parcel arrived my Dad got on the phone and said thanks for the "laptop", then he laughed at his own joke. He always liked to be up on things, my Dad.