First Quilts - DQ Sangita

(Guest post by Sangita, the 13th in our series of 'First Quilts')

The making of my first quilt -  that is a journey that started in my mind more than 6 months ago when I saw my sis-in-law, Smita sewing quilts after attending a quilting workshop and networking with DQ and I too made quilts for my daughter, and my son, and my father, and my niece- or nephew- to-be, but all in my very vivid imagination!  In fact, I went along with Smita to the favourite haunt of quilters in Bengaluru - Okhalipuram and shopped crazily for fabric that appealed to my sensibilities with still no clue what I was going to make or how as I didn't even own a sewing machine (though my very generous sis-in-law had offered me the use of all her quilting tools including her sewing machine!). Then came my surprise birthday gift - a Singer sewing machine which left me speechless and my imaginary quilts started becoming more concrete - of course, they were still imaginary as I had no clue where to start and then the Universe finally got the message that I was not going to start quilting unless I was given it to me on a platter.

Well, once the Universe had done all the figuring out, it was a smooth ride with Tina Katwal of Quilts of Love, proposing to conduct a Blooming 9-patch quilt workshop which was instrumental in my first quilt taking that giant leap from imagination to reality. Of course, there were many in-between steps like choosing fabrics, learning to cut, learning to piece, learning to iron, learning to rip seams and most importantly, learning to keep the faith that all would finally work out in the end! It only helped that all the participants of the workshop and our Guru and our hostess were the most generous and sharing people I have come across and were willing to patiently teach me from scratch and not let me give up on myself at any point. All through the making of my quilt, I was in turns proud of myself and amazed that I could be instrumental in creating something so beautiful and by the time I had finished with the binding, I was totally in love with my quilt and could not bear the thought of parting with it - something which I had decided from the beginning would be a gift for my cousin's baby due in July! Well, right now I am working hard on deciding on my next project and harder on detaching myself from my beautiful first quilt :-)

 Love, 

Sangita 

(Linking this up with Chumkie's Linky Party on 9 patches @ 'My favourite things'.)