Some of my earliest memories are sitting behind Mom's treadle machine as she chained pieced quilts for gifts. Most were made from feed and flour sacks. I was allowed to use her scissors and cut the threads and make a new stack for her to work on. By the time I was 9 I was taking sewing in 4-H. Our leader was a wonderful seamstress and so patient. I might mention that my Grandmother sewed professionally, making clothes for the well-to-do in her small town. I can't remember ever having boughten clothes for school and by the time I was in high school, I made most of my own. Early years of married life, I was still making most of the families clothes, even suits for the males. Almost 40 years ago I took my first quilting class and learned the basics. Like Jeanie mentioned, everything was cardboard templates and scissors! My goal was to make a quilt for each of my children but they were so young I did a couple of twin size quilts for my in-laws. One was a Log Cabin QAYG. Life interrupted and I didn't get back to quilting until about 4 years ago. I've taken classes and sewed up a storm since then. There are still many tricks to learn and patterns to try and I work at it faithfully almost every day. BTW...my first Eleanor Burns quilt is her El's Kitchen which I'm doing as a BOM right now. Great memories, QuiltE. Thanks for asking. Love hearing others stories too.