Quilting has come a long way, baby.

Last Saturday, I spent the afternoon with my mother and grandmother learning to quilt. This started a year ago when my mom, grandmother and I took a little trip to Patches Quilt Shop in Mt. Airy, MD to purchase the fabric. (visit them here: Patches Quilt Shop)

I had a design in my head; my mom and grandmother had the know how to tease that design into a functional quilt. My mother is a self taught quilter, although she has been sewing clothes since she was a teenager. We settled on a Log Cabin design with my family's monograms embroidered in the center panel.  

Here's what I've pieced together so far.

This is Little E's monogram. As is traditional with embroidering monograms, the first letter of the last name(in this case the letter W) is in the center with the first letter of his first name (the letter E) on the left and the first letter of his middle name (the letter J) on the right. 

This is Big E's monogram.

I embroidered 12 monograms of different family members.  Some of the center panels have embroidered flowers instead of the monograms. (I tried taking a picture of some of those panels, but they kept coming out blurry. I'm not a photographer. You can tell, can't you?) Some will have lace stitched to the center panel, although I've have yet to do those.  

As I go along, I will show you how I add a strip of fabric to each side of the center block, creating a design called the Log Cabin. That way, you can come along with me on my quilting journey. 

I'm pretty pleased with myself right now. I especially like the fact that quilting has allowed me to spend time with my mom and grandmother, building memories.  

What projects are you working on?