Sewing 101

I love to sew and craft! However, I lack confidence. Recently I gave myself permission to sew and craft whatever I want. By that I mean that I don't have to pigeon hole myself into a category or feel like my projects aren't worthy because they are easy. Except for homemaking classes in 8th and 9th grades were I learned basics I am pretty much self taught. I'm definitely a self taught quilter. I learned to sew on my mother's machine which she bought in Germany. I still have that machine and would still be sewing on it except they stopped making parts for it. It now sits on display in my secret room as an inspiration to me. I now sew on a Baby Lock Grace model which is nearly the bottom of the line but still has way more features than I will probably ever use.

I am not ashamed to admit that sometimes I use precut fabrics. Apparently a lot of other quilters do, too, because you can find a huge selection of them. You can use them as is, which is what I have done, or you can use templates to make other more complicated designs, which I hope to try in the future. I like the precuts because the color guess work is gone. I am not very good at choosing colors. I tend to overthink and get very frustrated. I have started small, literally. I've been making baby quilts which seem to be appreciated by the receivers. I've been tinkering around with size and how to make one from one charm pack. I think I may have settled on a design although I may change my mind in the future. Here are my recent projects made from charm packs:

This is one charm pack with the back and binding made from the same fabric.
It makes a rather small quilt.

This is also one charm pack but I added coordinated sashing. The back and binding are a different coordinated fabric. The sashing makes it a little larger than the one above.

This one is two charm packs with a solid back and binding. It is the largest of the 3.