Exploding blocks - My first quilt.

First of all, I would like to apologize that my English is not perfect. But I hope, you’ll understand the little fairy tale I want to tell you. Once upon a time – in fact it was end of March 2015 – in a land far across the ocean, a 45 years old guy wanted new curtains for his kitchen. As it is very expensive to get things sewed in his country, he decided, “I want to have a sewing machine”. So he bought one on Ebay for just 35 EURO which is about 40 $. When the sewing machine arrived, he noticed that there was no one to teach him how to sew. So he asked good old “Aunt Google” what to do and found some sewing tutorials on YouTube. After hours of practicing – in fact he practiced many nights – he was able to sew a seam. On YouTube he saw another tutorial. No, not only one, but there were many, many tutorials on how to make quilts. A very nice lady – she must be “the goddess of blocks”, he thought – showed how one can sew wonderful quilts easily. He remembered all those wonderful antique family quilts he once saw at a friends’ house when he visited the United States about 15 years ago and he said: “That is the thing I want to do!”. So he began practicing again. This time he practiced how to produce scrappy four patches. Then he saw the goddess’s tutorial on the “exploding blocks quilt” and he asked himself, “What if the first block in the center was a four patch?” So, take a look at the picture. This is what came out. Now the guy in the land far across the ocean still has no new curtains for his kitchen, but he has a new passion: sewing blocks. And he will live happily ever after and keep on quilting. The guy in the fairy tale, that’s me, Frank. And the land far across the ocean is Germany. I really started sewing just six weeks ago and last night I finished the top of my first baby size quilt. It is not perfect. But nevertheless I am proud to have been got through it. Now I am waiting for the batting I just ordered on Ebay. Then I will quilt this piece doing the stitch in the ditch and finish the quilt with a thin blue border as a binding. Many thanks to Jenny and Missouri Star Quilt Company for all that great tutorials which help even a greenhorn like me to get things done. Here in Germany, quilting is not as popular as it is in the US. It is not so easy to find good fabrics for quilting here and we only have very few quilt shops, which are far away from the little village where I live. Because of the custom fees it is too expensive to order fabrics in the US. I wish Jenny and Missouri Quilt Company would move to good old Europe. But that might be another fairy tale….