Originally, took a weekend class here in Vanuatu (18 years ago) taught by the headmistress of my son's school as a fundraiser to buy a cotton candy machine to use for fundraising for the school. She held 3 classes during the school year. Didn't get the bug then. Skip ahead 10 years, found my UFO from the second class (truly-truly, an ugly quilt-not the pattern, but my fabric choices!) and decided to finish hand-quilting it to fill in time. That was when the bug bit!! I haven't looked back! I was only taught hand-quilting, so I am still afraid of machine quilting-except the recent few wall quilts and appliance covers I experimented with.