Anniversary

This week marks the second anniversary of my quilting career! Would you like to join me on a sentimental journey?

Two years ago, in July 2006, I was 7 months pregnant with our third son, Robbie. I had made a lot of small cloth diapers for the baby, mainly from lovely flannels, and I was wondering what to do with the scraps of these nice fabrics. Hmm, can't you make a quilt from scraps?

So I searched the internet for 'quilts' and, of course, found millions of sites and pictures! Luckily I also found a Dutch quilters mailinglist and joined it. The kind ladies there provided help and advice and there was even one living close to me who showed me her quilts, which was very inspiring!

I went to the quiltshop in Rotterdam during my last week at work before my pregnancy leave and bought a rotary cutter, a cutting mat, some more fabric... and the rest is history!

In 8 days I made my very first quilt, for my oldest son, Hugo, then 3 years old. (Here I am, very elegantly sandwiching it with my almost-8-months-pregnant bump!) I showed it here a while ago - it's very simple, but I still love it! (and so does he!)



I was hooked now and immediately started on the next one, also a flannel quilt, for the baby. Within a week it was finished! (and it looked very good in the cradle)



And then I had to make a flannel quilt for Ernst as well, of course! This one took a little longer; almost 3 weeks...



Then I took some rest (I did make some more cloth diapers and a few patchwork balls), had the baby in September and went to a quilt show in October, where I bought a book called Spellbinding quilts. I decided to make a quilt using patterns from this book for Hugo's 4th birthday, in February. As I had 3 little boys now, went back to work (3 days per week) in December and we were busy preparing our move to Australia in March 2007, I couldn't spend a lot of time quilting and the quilt wasn't finished until a few hours before his birthday!



If I look at the binding now, I shiver... but I still love this quilt!

On March 25th, 2007, we arrived in Brisbane. It took 2 months for my sewing machine and fabric stash to arrive, but in the meantime I joined ScQuilters, bought lots of Australian quilting magazines at the Lifeline bookshop and there was even a kind lady who lent me her old sewing machine. In April, one of my best friends in The Netherlands had her first baby and for him I made this quilt, called Flanello:



In the winter months I made a lot of bags (a new addiction) and in September I finished the next quilt, for another friend's baby:



Then for Ernst's 3rd birthday in October I made my first I Spy quilt:



And on my first quilting retreat, at Lake Moogerah in November 2007, I made this quilt with blocks that I won in a lottery at the Dutch mailinglist:



Although perhaps not really a beginner anymore, I decided to do a beginners course anyway, at The Quilters Corner in Keperra - my local quiltshop. It was very useful and I made this sampler:



Then it was time to try something new: pictorial quilts. In the last months of 2007, I made these small bird quilts:



Meanwhile I had discovered ATCs and fabric postcards and for a while I spent most of my sewing time on these addictive little things. Then, in February 2008, I made a few log cabin blocks, which led to Loca...



And finally, I joined 2QAQ and started an online art quilt group which led to this quilt (Jacaranda), the first of many, I hope:



And here we are, today! I would never have believed it, if you had told me 3 years ago that patchwork and quilting would become such an important part of my life. I hope to do this for years and years to come and I have lots of ideas for future quilts... but that is something to write about in another posting!

Thanks for joining me on this journey down memory lane - which quilt do you like best?
I think the log cabin and the kookaburra are my favourites...