Thanks to everyone who has shared their stories, they are fascinating! Here's mine. I learned to sew in Home Ec back in the 1960s. I sewed my own clothes through high school and college. After college I got married and took classes to sew things like sheets, lingerie, and even my husband's underwear! Soon after we got married my DH was doing some uranium exploration in Wyoming in the late 1970s and was staying at a cozy lodge in the mountains. I joined him over the weekends, and admired a baby quilt hung on a wall in the main room. I told DH "I can make one like that" so when I got back to town I bought material and started sewing. This quilt was just a yard of fabric with big Bambies on it and I decided to hand quilt around every Bambie. Well, I started out making it as a baby quilt for one friend, and 13 years later finished it as a baby quilt for a different friend! I hand stitched around one Bambie each year--slow as a snail. During this time, I took a class in machine piecing and was amazed that I could both piece and quilt with my sewing machine. So now I do everything by machine--but I sure am proud of completing that first quilt. I continue to be amazed at how one little incident--seeing a quilt on a wall--can lead to a lifetime of creativity and joy.