A Trunk Show - my first year of quilting

A year ago, I returned from a two-month trip with a hankering to learn quilting and a fat quarter bundle on my living room table.

Since then, I've completed 29 quilt projects.

I feel the accomplishment deserves a celebration in the form of a Trunk Show!

I started out small. These 7" banners let me take my first steps. In the beginning enthusiam was way more important than perfection.

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I made my first quilt using precut 10" squares. It is an easy method that I repeated multiple times over the year. Each of these projects moved me closer to my goal of straight seams and points matching up.

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As I gained confidence, I chose more complex projects. Left to right, a colorful quilt for my sister, an improvisational quilt for my neighbor, and a quilt made from vintage ties.

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I've always wanted to understand color better. These two projects were useful - a complementary color quilt with red-violet/yellow-green and a colorwash quilt that moves from blue-violet to aqua to green.

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I love the idea of quilts for seasons. As summer was approaching, I made a light summer quilt out of Liberty fabric. With nearly 1,400 squares, it was my most ambitious project.

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I've been a storyteller all my life and the practice snuck into several quilts. My love for The Great British Bake Off inspired an homage quilt, my black and white quilt got the title "Which Fork Do I Use?", and my improvised window squares tried to answer the question: now, where did I leave my car?

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I was captivated by a quilt I saw on YouTube. There was no pattern so I used graph paper and an online app to recreate it in blues. Before I made it, I practiced half-square triangles so vigorously that I ended up with enough blocks to make a bonus quilt.

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When I realized my scrap drawer was filling up at a rapid rate, I found a pattern and made my first scrap quilt. It turns out, projects that use scraps are very popular on YouTube. This is by far the most viewed quilt video on my channel.

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My second scrap quilt combined two types of fabric that I have too much of: bright designer fabric and novelty fabric.

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I made two wall hangings this year, both of them out of neccesity. Tula Pink's owl fabric helped me obscure an unattractive view of the back of my dresser. And a pile of "orphan blocks" that had nowhere else to go, found their home.

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And that is my Trunk Show for my first quilt-iversary.

I am grateful I found quilting. The repetitive activity calms me. The visuals light up my brain. The quilts transform my living space into an art gallery. And I'm sleeping soundly in the embrace of my handiwork.

I can't recommend it enough.