Well said, ladies.
My husband and I spend a lot of time away from home for work, and in the fall of 2007, we were in Boise, Idaho for three months. We were working different schedules, and I realized that I had a bit of alone time, that I had to spend indoors-cold blood here, lol-and I was getting bored with just reading and such. We happened to be living five minutes away from a quilt shop-before I even knew what quilting even was- and passing by, I saw a sign advertising beginning quilt classes, I had to research what quilting was all about when I got home, and I was telling my husband that I thought I wanted to sign up for the classes and learn how to quilt, if I liked it, a new hobby will be born, if not, I'd have spent the fall doing something productive. My husband agreed that I had nothing to loose and I should try it.
Next day off to the quilt shop I went, and I had no clue what to expect, I remember seeing all the color coordinated fabrics everywhere, and being a color person, I remember thinking that hey at least I'll be spending time in a cheerful colorful place. I asked the lady at the counter about the beginning classes and explained to her that I had no clue what's what, I owned no equipments, sewing machine and that my husband is the one in the household to attach buttons on, I don't ever remember threading a needle, she laughed and said that i'd love it and the teacher loves converting newbies and I could buy things I needed as I go and they had a sewing machine I can use...so I signed up, and my quilting journey began, I remember being so overwhlemed by the whole process, other ladies in the class were far more advanced than I was, they all had machines, knew how to thread them, knew how to sew straight lines and pretty much all at some point tried quilting. Well, me, lol, I was lost. But I sat there during the first lesson, and listened to the teacher explain the process, introducing terms I have never heard before and go over supplies list and assignments. She was very nice, knowledgeable and helpful, and took extra time to clarify things that confused me. I went home that day with many foreign supplies. And I remember explaining to my husband what all the stuff was to be used for. The next day I went back to the quilt shop to try to pick fabrics for the pattern we were using for the class,an Ohio star, and was so overwhelmed yet again and had to have the ladies there help me pick and coordinate.
Anyway, I struggled through the whole process from cutting to trying to piece the darn triangles, adding sashing, borders and putting the four blocks together. It took me six weeks to just do that,lol, and it was a job poorly done I may add. :mrgreen:
The class was just for piecing, by the time it was done, it was time to go home, so I packed my quilt top and stashed somewhere with every intention to finish it but no clue how.
Work took us to to a few places after that, and I kept thinking that I needed to finish that top...in November 2008, a year later, we were again spending three months in cold Washington state, and i decided that it was the perfect time to learn to finish that top, I bought my first sewing machine and signed up to take classes to learn how to use it, bought some books, wAtched Tutorials and joined the board and managed to quilt my first quilt,again poorly,lol, and it was finished. And I found myself ready to start something new, and I did, but we went to work in Hawaii after that, and I had to leave my machine behind, and pause my quilting adventure until i got home in April last year, and I've been quilting nonstop and managed to finish few things and love it.
Moral of this long story is that it is good for us to venture into new things in life and try things even if we feel are over our head, it's how we discover new things about ourselves and pursue new passions in life. This idea had defined my quilting journey, it is true that i always seem to choose projects that are difficult for me, I enjoy the challenge, and after all, like my husband always says, what do you have to loose, got for it!