I have always been a crafter. As a child I made clothing for my dolls, I knitted and did crochet an other things. My mother teached me. It was not until 1989 (I was 23 years old) before I found a book about patchwork quilts - but I must say I was immediately hooked. There were no workshops or other quilters around me in that time so I'm self taught. My first quilt, a sampler in 4 shades of blue solids, is hand sewn and hand quilted. I recognized very early that I loved the handquilting process much more than the sewing - but I didn't know about wholecloth quilts. In 1993 I found a book about handquilting and wholecloths and this was the start of my handquilting career! So I stopped doing patchwork and until that time I have only done wholecloths and strippies.