I have been sewing and doing embroidery (traditional and crewel - I embroidered a May of the US in about the 5th grade for a school project. Wish I still had that!) since I was about 10 years old - I'm almost 70 now. As a young adult, I learned to crochet, knit, cross stitch, needle point, and rug hooking. I always wanted to quilt, so about 10 years ago I took a beginner's class and have been hooked ever since. I hate machine quilting, except on small items. I usually tie large items and either tie or hand quilt small items, but am getting ready to attempt a larger quilt. I have done appliqué and want to do more. I have hand quilted with regular quilting thread and done large stitch quilting with pearl cotton. My next goals are to make a large quilt using a lot of appliqué and to try doing some quilt art.