I always sewed. whether it was simple curtains, some of my own clothes, halloween costumes for my kids when they were little. One day before work I came upon Alex Anderson's show and watched it every day while I ate breakfast. It never occurred to me to try it. I didn't tell anyone, just because,well, it was me and the cereal and Alex. Then 12 years ago I retired. One son said to me "Now that you are retired you can make me a quilt" What? "I don't quilt" He said "well, you are retired so you can learn". So I looked around and as luck would have it, found a quilting class through the parks department of where we lived. I met some wonderful friends and the teacher couldn't have been better for me. Except my very first quilt was a flannel trip around the world. I had sewed on flannel before so that didn't seem odd. The quilt turned out fine and my granddaughter who is 12.5 still has it on her bed, covered with a bigger quilt. Then I made the quilt for my son. I had seen someone on Alex's show who made a quilt with large ultra suede squares and if they are placed with the nap going different ways it gives a nice texture. I couldn't find the video of that program and couldn't find ultra suede in the budget but did find a kind of knit with some of the same features. It was a challenge because it was slippery, but, the top came out fine and I backed it with the same fabric and used fleece as a batting. I stitched it in the ditch (did have to wrestle it through some parts) on a Costco version Brother mechanical machine (which turns out is my favorite machine even though I have a collection of nice vintage ones too). He was thrilled with it. After those two challenges, I have mostly made cotton quilts except for the flannel and chenille one I made for the youngest grandson who is now almost 8 and he calls it his "triangle quilt" (talk about the mess the chenille made) and it is still on his bed under a big whole cloth quilt I made him from chambray and cut embroidered bugs off his crib dust ruffle and appliquéd them on with invisible thread. that was a huge challenge. He loves both of them. My daughter in law thinks I can do anything, which is nice, but I really can't, but she is pleased with it all. I took a class on hand piecing, which I don't love, but then decided to hand quilt and I did a few by hand which I enjoy but right now can't get my act together to put one together to hand quilt. so now we moved to a house where I have my own room which is bright and sunny and I don't have any quilting mojo at the moment. I know it will return.