craftybear

How and when did you get started in quilting?

Dragonfly Nana

For me it was in 2007 when, for the first time in 30 years, I was not employed full time. I started with a magizine and some online reading and taught myself to quilt.

My skills have increased more since I joined this board than they did in the first two years.

ann clare

Saw a raffle quilt and decided that I could do as good. Took a class and never looked back. That was over 25 years ago.

patti-cakes

1976, I had a new baby and a 3 yr. old. We moved to a very small town and lived a couple doors down from the library. I was soooooo bored and had always been crafty, so I decided to make my new baby a quilt. I went to the library and checked out a book and decided to make a Sunbonnet Sue quilt. Not having much $$ I used some awful fabric I had and did it all wrong. I remember that I quilted on top of the applique! Anyway, my daughter cherished the ugly thing but lost it last year in a fire when the family house burned down. I have given her a couple quilts over the years and I offered to replace that one but she says there is no replacement as it was the first quilt for both of us.
Been quilting on and off since then, but mostly off and just started back last November. Was so surprised and pleased at the new pre-cuts! I am back at with a passion now!! Thanks for asking Craftybear...what's your story?

Scissor Queen

I was just 21 when I started my first quilt. I was married to my first husband and my then sister in law decided we could make our fortune making quilts. She saw an ad in the back of some magazine for 50 pounds of fabric for 5 bucks. It was a huge box of fabric! She took most of the fabric. There were some sheets in the box that I took and I got a piece of twill weave solid burgandy and a print of small roses and paisleys. There was a pattern for a double Irish chain in one of the women's magazines with instructions for templates. I used one of the sheets and the burgandy and print fabrics and made a double Irish chain. Then life happened and I was widowed and didn't get back to the quilt for a few years. Then I ran across solid white wide backing and got the quilt layered and basted. It got put away a second time for many more years. At the time I didn't know you could hand quilt without a frame. After I was married to my second husband the internet was born and I got a webtv and internet access. Thru that I found a John Flynn frame and finished that quilt. It was almost to the month 20 years from start to finish on that quilt. As soon as I had that quilt finished I started a second one and before it was finished I had started a third and fourth quilt. That second quilt still isn't finished but I've made many, many more quilts of all sizes since then.

After I got internet access I discovered all sort of new techniques had been invented and that made all the difference for me. I'm not real likely to make many quilts with templates and scissors again!! Although there is that stupid Saturday Sampler waiting on me.

virtualbernie

I have always been into sewing garmets and other crafty things but had never tried quilting. Some 6/7 years ago my cousin got this urge to try quilting so she begged me to go to a quilt class with her. So off we went with me whining and complaining that I just didn't like quilting--that I'd rather make clothes. Lo and behold I got hooked! She on the other hand has not even finished the quilt we started in class! :)

craftybear

I started making my 1st quilt about 20 years ago, took a class at a LQS (Eleanor Burns quilt in a day, Lovers Knot lap quilt) and got the top done in class on a Saturday, a few weeks later the teacher that had taught the class was killed in bad auto accident

I was never able to find anyone to help me finish it so last fall, I got it back out and stitching in the ditch now and hope to get it finished soon

last December joined a quilting guild and this year joined another guild

I am now having lots of fun with my new quilting friends and some of us meet weekly for a sew day

I have learned:
1. paper piecing
2. disappearing 9 patch (top is done)
3. hexagons (by hand and covered a cute pincushion)
4. made a reversible table runner
5. made a tube quilt table runner and entered it in a quilt show May 2010
6. John Deere placemats, potholders and coasters
and some small projects

Craftybear

Charlee

I used to sew all of my ex's and boy's shirts, and most of my own clothing too. My ex's mother was a quilter, and the first quilt I made was one for my mother's birthday...a friendship quilt where I cut and sent out blank white 12 inch squares for folks to "do whatever" on and sign...Got 49 wonderful blocks back with all sorts of different things...embroidery, painting, photos...put them together with sashing, tied it and Mom loved it!! That was in 1984...my next experience was in the early 90's when I made a feathered star wall hanging, again for my mother...no one told me that I wasn't experienced enough to do that, or the Mariner's Compass that followed it...they turned out great!

I also made a Kaleidoscope quilt about that same time. That was the last of my quilting until this year...I'm so glad to be back to it!! :)

SherriB

I have sewed since I was about 12 or 13. Mostly clothes, things for my home or crafts. When raq quilts became popular around here a couple years ago, I wanted to make one. That was the beginning for me. I gradually started making simple 4 patch and 9 patch quilts. I have gotten the courage to even try a few quilt patterns.

candi

It is always fun to hear everyone's quilting story.

No one in my family (that I know of anyway) sews or quilts. I am a craft fair junkie, and I was always fascinated by quilted things. My husband and I travel a lot for work and we spend at least six months of the year away from home. In September of 2007, we were in Boise, Idaho for a three-month period and we happened t be staying near a quilt shop. As I was driving by one day, I saw them advertising beginner quilt classes and I heard the shop calling my name. It was my first time in quilt shop, surrounded by fabrics and notions and I realized right then that it was something I'd enjoy. I asked the helpful ladies about that class, and they said even if I can't even a thread a machine and don't have one (both were true in my case), I can take the class learning on one of the store machines. I signed up. It was a six-week class, one session a week, where the teacher taught us about fabric, measuring, pressing, cutting and we made Ohio star blocks. She taught us how to add sashing and borders and by the end of the class I had about 45 by 45 wall-hanging. The teacher was so gracious and generous that she even loaned me one of her personal machines to use at home. I enjoyed every minute of the class, and despite the challenges I faced learning everything from scratch and struggling with even winding the bobbin, I knew that quilting was going to be a new hobby for me. We then went to Hawaii for nine months (for work) and quilting was not an option for me during that time, but it was always on my mind. As soon as we left Hawaii, and got to Spokane, I told my husband that I am buying a sewing machine, bought one and quilted my Ohio Star top from the class. Since then, I've worked on some small projects and some bigger ones, took a machine quilting class and attempted few things, and I am loving it. I take my machine and some stash with me whenever I can and I try to always have something to work on, some months I get a lot done, and some months I barely sit on my sewing machine, but I am always thinking about it. I discovered that I don't like kits, and I like to change many patterns. I got a used copy of the EQ5 and I am discovering that I love designing quilts. I am a better piecer than quilter, but definitely have a lot of room to improve in both arenas. I also discovered that my spirit is more advanced than my skill levels, I keep getting myself in way over my head, but I am loving it.

Thanks for asking :)