My First Project: Amy Butler's Brick Path Quilt

As I mentioned in my first post, my first true quilt project was Amy Butler's free Lotus Brick Path pattern. I was really enamored with her fabrics and thought it sounded like a good first project for a beginner. So while home in NYC for Christmas, my wife and I discovered the fabulous City Quilter (my aunt and uncle literally live right across the street!) and stocked up on our half yard cuts.

It took me a while to cut out all the bricks, and while I don't remember exactly what I was doing wrong, I know I certainly made it a whole lot more difficult than it needed to be. It was a great project for a first-timer, though. I meticulously laid out the entire quilt top before piecing it, making sure that at least one color from each brick flowed into the next. (Yes, I'm that kind of person).

Piecing the top was a great orientation to my wife's machine. I finally got it all together, butchered it with a pair of scissors in an attempt to square it up, laid it right sides together and flipped it out after sewing it together (is this called "birthing" the quilt? I thought I read that somewhere ...).

Anyhow, it is far from perfect, and I am sure that any experienced quilter would wince upon closer inspection. There's a lot of bunching, especially in the middle. (Common rookie error, I'm sure: I stitched in the ditch starting on the sides and worked my way inward, towards the middle). And I learned to avoid striped fabrics for backing ... my stitching in the ditch and the stripes on the back nowhere near match up.

But my wife loves it -- she insisted on keeping it and snuggles with it every night in front of the TV. And I love it, too -- I'm very proud of it and still love all of the patterns and colors.

Not bad for a first project, eh?

(Oh, and here's my photography assistant, insisting on getting in on the shoot!)