I never took any kind of homemaking classes in school, I wanted to take shop, but GIRLS couldn't take shop. Anyway, no formal training for sewing, but until I got my serger, I rarely got anything finished. Once I got the serger, I really went to town. When my granddaughter was little I started making her clothes, when she started living with us, I made all her clothes, but then in 5th -7th grade we home schooled, so she didn't need school clothes, so I joined a charity quilt group, still swearing I was not going to quilt. Well, then I discovered rotary cutters, mats, rulers, etc and have been going at it since. My husband wants to know where the REAL Carmen is, because she said she would never quilt. I tell him I wouldn't be quilting if I still had to cut by scissors and cardboard templates.