My dad had a comforter that his mother bought before she died and never used. It was in what my dad called a blanket box. (A cedar chest without the cedar). I fell in love with the box and he and I refinished it. Not sure why but I painted it with enamel black and still love it. It was my "Hope Chest". He gave me the quilt inside of it and I slept under that quilt until it fell apart. But I was going to make quilts to fill up my blanket box. I wanted to hand sew my quilts. I sewed clothes and I embroidered but didn't do any quilting until after I left home. It was about 6 years when I decided to make my first quilt, just patchwork squares. And I was watching the PBS shows with Georgia Bonesteel, Quilt In a Day, and Nancy's Sewing. Luckily "Simply Quilts" came on and I had a VCR. A lady at work also wanted to learn to quilt so we sewed together at work for a few years. We didn't know about guilds , so we used our breaks and lunch times to sew or craft. We called is our group therapy. Others started to join us as time went along. Sometimes we would quilt, other times crochet, or embroider.