My First Quilt

Sheila at  Blue Patch Quilter has written a post about her fist quilt and is hosting a linky party where you can link to your first quilt. I think it's a fabulous idea, so here is my first ever quilt.

This is a pattern by Lynette Anderson, I think, I can't find the pattern.  I made it about 10 yrs ago, for my 7yr old daughter, she loved mermaids way back then. It's a little creased as it has been tucked away in the cupboard for quite some time. I loved this pattern when I saw it and was so happy that the quilt shop carried lovely bright fabrics, I remember the joy of playing with the fabric and working out what I would need.

This quilt includes a lot of firsts for me, rotary cutting, piecing, applique, fabric drawing and quilting.
The mermaids are appliquéd with blanket stitch edging, and the faces are hand drawn. I had never quilted before and was too scared to machine quilt much, so I stitched in the ditch along the border and then hand stitched undersea motifs and hand sewn beads across the quilt top.

The mermaid tails have an extra layer of thin batting in them to make them a little more three dimensional and the starfish were made separately, stuffed and then hand stitched to the quilt.

I still love this quilt, and I'm amazed that I attempted it.
I only finished one more quilt after that and then gave quilting away until I started again last year.