Day 1: Bridal Quilt, A Woman’s Legacy, My First Quilt, Early 1980’S, Charlotte, NC

I always said that if I stopped teaching elementary music, I was going to start quilting. So, in 1980, I decided to leave the music classroom and enter the quilt world. While taking a beginning quilt class at a local quilt shop, I saw the center sample for this Bridal Quilt. I fell in love with applique over the next 12 weeks.

Sue Carter and Judy Bryan authored the pattern and the history that accompanied it. In the 1800s, a young bride brought 12 quilts to her marriage. The first twelve quilts she owned were a group effort of friends and family members, but the 13th quilt was her very best work. This quilt represents that 13th quilt and pays tribute to a Woman’s Legacy!

If you take a close look, you can see that Sue and Judy incorporated a wide variety of quilting techniques in this pattern and I learned a lot.

Did I mention that I hand-pieced the 18-inch diagonal blocks together? Back then (even though I made a good many of my clothes) I was afraid of my sewing machine and did not want to mess up the quilt! The applique pieces were marked with a pencil, pinned down, turned under on the line, and hand stitched down, then hand quilted. This was before freezer paper, pre-made templates, the rotary cutter, and machine quilting.