My Grammy and Aunt Mary quilted all the time and did beautiful work. After my Dad was hurt in a logging accident my mother had to run a business, take care of my Dad and raise 9 kids. She didn't have extra time for anything. When I was 12 I took my first homeech class. I already knew how to cook, so I concentrated on sewing. From them on I made virtually all of my cloths. When we married and had 4 kids I continued. Occasionally I would make a scrap quilt, but nothing to be proud of. As our kids grew up and started leaving, I still made cloths, but when I would visit our lqs for fabric I would drool over the quilts. I would tell myself someday I'll do that. Then one day I was talking to the owner of my lqs and she suggested I take a beginning quilting class. I did and an addiction was born. When I was raising my kids, I was constantly told that I just didn't do things quite as good as my mother (not by my DH) or that I didn't really know what work was because I "only" had 4 kids. I guess part of me wanted to do something that my mom never did so that I couldn't be compared to her and I wanted to do it beautifully. I don't work really fast, but I am very anal about my quilts being as perfect as possible. As my mom got old and couldn't live alone anymore, when I would go to relieve my sister I would always take my machine and a project. She enjoyed watching me. I'm glad I could give her that.