My mom can do anything crafty-- sew, quilt, knit, crochet, etc. She really wanted to pass it all along to her kids, but we wanted nothing to do with it, myself included. While I appreciated what she can do, it wasn't "my thing" (I preferred reading, woodworking, etc).
As a young teen, I found out that my great-grandfather had made quilt tops for all of his great-grandchildren. My mom didn't have mine (or my little brother's). Then, in my early 20s, I found out my gramma still had ours, and she gave mine to me when she sold her big farmhouse (that my grampa built) to move to a smaller place. It became my goal to learn to hand quilt "when I had the time".
The time finally came when I was in my late 30s. I have a job that has a lot of down time, and as long as a project is somewhat portable, and can be dropped in an emergency, I can do it at work. So I sought out a group that could teach me to hand quilt (a group at the local senior center). My mom was also a great source, and I used her as well, but she didn't hand quilt often and hadn't done any for years. Anyway, I wanted to make sure I got practice before tackling my great-grampa's top.
I hadn't really touched a sewing machine since I did a small project in Jr High. I hand pieced a baby quilt (pretty simple since it was a panel), and then hand quilted that. Then I realized that there were other projects I wanted to tackle that would require the use of a sewing machine, so I finally gave in and attempted that again.
I'm finishing a large quilt for my parents (I posted it on here as I was making the top), which will have a mix of hand and machine quilting, due to time restraints and my choice of backing.
After my parent's quilt, I will finally hand quilt my great-grampa's. I'm looking forward to it!
I've been led to pick up several other crafts for "practical reasons". Like, my mom knits the best socks in the world, and keeps me well-stocked, but now I have to learn to knit socks too. So I did. She had me knit about a 3 x 4 inch piece, then we unraveled it and she got me started with 5-needle-sock-knitting. She works at a Joann Fabrics, and I've been told by her coworkers and the women in my quilt group that she is excited that I've finally fallen in love with her crafts.
ETA: when I started, I only wanted to hand piece/quilt. But then I started using a sewing machine for other things, and it's just so much faster! Then our group made over 120 quilts for recipients of Meals on Wheels, and definitely needed a machine to accomplish all that (I only contributed a few, but the women in my group are seriously impressive and fast!) So now I hand quilt some, and machine quilt others.
Last edited by Sleepy Hollow; 11-22-2019 at 03:34 PM.