something I posted to a quilting yahoogroup a few weeks back

... if I had already had this blog I would have sent it here too ... so I am sending it here now instead ;-)
(that was part of my reason for having a blog ... somewhere to collect a whole pile of my weird ravings on that I send to all sorts of different e-mail lists and people, including myself *vbg*, all in one place ... so that someone who is mad enough to actually read it can do so ... )
anyway ...
This was a reply I posted to scquilters (which was the first of (too) many yahoogroups I have joined over the last few years ;-)
Subject: SCQ: Where is you VERY FIRST quilt now?
er ... it is sitting on a pile of empty cardboard boxes in the passage behind me (well it was until I got up and got it to have a look at while typing this e-mail about it ... now it is beside me) I had forgotten all about it, or that it was probably my first ever "quilt" (not sure if I made it before or after the baby rug I mentioned some other time - but the rug wasn't pieced anyway - but this was ) - I found it in a pile of stuff when I was moving all my linen/etc from the wardrobe in here (which doesn't have shelves ... so I had made do with left over boxes from moving ... but they didn't work too well) into the cupboard in the laundry (which does have shelves ... but they were full of stuff - half of which I threw out ... because it hadn't been used since before we moved here ... and half of which I managed to find new homes for). Actually it isn't a quilt as such - but it is my first quilted item ... it is a baby sling (one of those thingys that is like a square of fabric/etc with ties on the 4 corners - so u tie it on you and the baby snuggles on your front - nursing mothers were selling them so I decided I could make my own instead ) ... I made it back in 1991 - soon after ds (my first child) was born ... I used some polyester sheeting remnants that I had bought in Toowoomba (I was posted there when I was in the Army - that is where I met DH ) ... and I cut out some squares (they are not quite 2" big and I don't think I knew about 1/4" seams yet either ) of different colours and arranged them in a sort of pattern ... I put a border around it ... and a bit of "wadding" (well that is what the shops called it when I bought it ... now everyone seems to just call it batting) in it, and a backing on it ... no binding as such - I just put it together wrong sides together and wadding inside and turned the edges under - so they were in between the layers and sewed a line of stitching really close to the edge . Then I started hand quilting, in the ditch, in a sort of pattern between some of the squares ... note that I said "started" - I never did FINISH it! - LOL - I finished everything else first - so I could start actually USING it before the baby grew out of it ... with the intention of finishing the quilting in between using it ... but I think I did what I still do now - moved on to other things and never got back to it! LOL. I just looked at the quilting - double thickness of thread, and the stitches are almost 1/4" long! LOL ... and it is puckered!I will keep it ... and I might even use it again (no - I don't plan on having any more babies ... but I might be a grandma one day and I might end up babysitting baby grandkids or something ... ) ... but I doubt that I will ever actually FINISH the thing! LOL
Andrea,
disorganised in Dunlop
... who probably should take a photo of said "quilted item" and stick it on my website ... I actually have a whole heap of quilts, bags, crochet items, etc that I need to do that with ... one day I might actually get organised and dig them all out and have a "photo shoot" ... it is a bit hard to put photos of stuff on the www if I don't actually have any photos of it! LOL
btw ... I still haven't taken those photos ... LOL