My first quilt: Biscuits

Jan at Be*Mused inspired me to post about my first quilt (check hers out by the way).

This “biscuit” quilt was made by me in the mid-1970’s;  I used a pattern from McCall’s.  The biscuits were made by stuffing pleated squares and sewing the biscuits together to make the quilt. 

I never liked this quilt. Why? 

1. I broke a couple of double needles trying to stitch those biscuits into submission, and decided to zig-zag them together instead (doesn’t the stitching look lovely? Yikes!)  
2. Sewing the stuffed squares together was tedious, and I didn’t do a very good job. 
3. The quilt was not warm, because I had skimped and put only one layer of poly batting in the biscuits instead of two. The batting rolled up into a ball inside the biscuit and let lots of air through the quilt.
4. The fabrics were all the calicos I could find (most from J.C. Penney fabric department), likely a poly/cotton blend. Kind of an icky feel. But didn’t those colors hold up?  Barbara Brackman recently introduced a line of Old Fashioned Calicos that are similar to these, but I bet hers are cotton and nicer to touch.   

I even had a death wish for this quilt. I brought it to Michigan State University while I was a student, thinking that “wouldn’t it be great if someone steals this from my room?” Hah. No one wanted it.

So I still have my humble first quilt, and it protects the top of my Grandma’s cedar chest from scratches and bumps.