Many of you know I run a (very) small side sewing "business", Quilts by Nicole. Ashley suggested I write a post about how it all began, and I thought it was a pretty good idea too.
It all really began with my grandmother. I've always been a really creative person, especially as a kid. A friend of hers passed away and his wife, who was a sewer, had passed away a few months before he did. They didn't have any next of kin and so my grandmother was charged with clearing out his possessions. She gave me all of the woman's sewing kits (she had quite a few) and I started to play around with hand sewing things together.
My grandma Maxine passed away almost two years ago and one of my biggest regrets was that she wasn't able to see how much I've grown as a sewer and that I couldn't thank her for helping me realize this gift.
The spring break of my 10th grade year, I didn't have anywhere to go so I decided to take all my spare fabric and patch it together to make a quilt just to see how it would look. It took the entire spring break of me doing nothing but hand sewing each piece together but the end result was this:
It's not pretty by any stretch of the word, but I did this with no help or tutorials or real prior knowledge. I still know where each patch came from. The leopard print was for pillows I made my sister, the Taz fabric was for pillows I made for my mom, the country pattern was for a hamper I attached fabric to for my mom, the checkered blue print was for an angel set I created for my mom, and the colored blocks and brown fur was for a werewolf I had made for my step-dad at the time. I was so proud of this quilt for so long I kept it in the back of my car for years which is why some of it is discolored.
I've definitely come a long way since I created that quilt so long ago and I still have a lot to learn, but it's nice to be reminded of where it all began.