I love to read the stories you all have posted. My first quilt was a little odd. Exactly 40 years ago I was expecting our first child and read somewhere that it's good for babies to have tactile experiences. They suggested offering different kinds of fabric for a little one to touch, so I gathered up various swatches from my sewing scraps such as satin, corduroy, velour, flannel, etc. in a variety of colors and I sewed them together. I used a rubberized crib mat for "batting" and a backing that I don't remember now. I used a stitch and flip method, which resulted in a quilt of sorts, and I put a binding on it, somehow (though I may have used wide bias tape - I'm not sure). My little boy loved it, and then his brother and sister did, too. I intended to keep it but somehow in one of our moves it got lost.
I always did lots of sewing, crochet, knitting, cross stitch and crafts but dabbled in quilting only occasionally until recently. While living in Houston for many years, I'd inevitably go to the quilt festival now and then, and I'd come away all fired up to do some quilting, but the feeling was that in this hot climate, how many quilts would anyone need?
I might have drifted off to something else again, but this board and the local guild help to keep me focused. Most of the quilting I've done in recent years has been on guild community service projects, and it was a revelation to learn that there is an endless need for quilts in our communities, even in a hot climate.