When I was about 10 years old, my cooking & baking training started at home. I became so good at the baking part that I was usually the one who made the treats for guests (we lived in a place & time where visiting/coffee/goodies was a frequent thing) and I made all the pies & tarts because I was the one who mastered the art of perfect flaky pastry. (Now, Pillsbury makes my pastry.) I can still make spaghetti and soups, but Stouffer now makes my lasagna and macaroni & cheese.
Since our children are long since grown up & gone, we no longer have set meal times; for many years now, my husband and I have pretty much each fended for ourselves when it comes to food prep., because he is a diabetic and I am just not very interested in eating. For the same reasons, I rarely do any baking. This a.m., I decided to make a dozen muffins using a whole grain muffin mix that has about 6 steps to it before muffins are ready for the oven. And yet ... I managed to make stupid errors and a big mess in the kitchen. Three days ago I boiled a half dozen eggs for 30 minutes or more because I was sitting at this computer reading posts from this QB and forgot about the eggs.
So I'm thinking ... what if I quit making quilts for a while ... would I forget all the things I learned the hard way and have to make the same old mistakes? It doesn't bear thinking about! Do you gals who leave off quilting for years and then come back to it have to learn all over again?