Janice B

Both maternal and paternal grandmothers were quilters…I remember sitting under their quilt frames begging to help…No quilters on my maternal side after Grandma that I know of…one cousin that I know of on paternal side!

coffeecozy

As a child I slept under a quilt that my grandmother had made before I was born. I never really thought anything of it then but I treasure that link to her now. My mom took me along with her to her quilting group a few times but there was a lot of hand stitching and that was not for me. What a missed opportunity!
This has been a very nice thread to read,thanks for sharing.

ManiacQuilter2

The only quilter in my family tree is my Father's mother half sister, Aunt Maude She was the one who introduced me to quilting. I had been a sewer taught by my Mother and my Father's mother. It has been such an enjoyment to make such lovely quilts all shapes and sizes for friends and charity.

Annaquilts

I am a first also but I am trying to pass quilting down to my children.

rosiewell

I am the first "quilter" of the family, but my mother was a master embroiderer both by hand and on the machine, and all my aunts knitted, crocheted or made crafts.

Wanabee Quiltin

I am the first. My mother and grandmother could barely sew on a button. My paternal grandmother was a knitter and could sew, but no quilting.

canmitch1971

My paternal aunts quilted and did beautiful weaving on looms but other than that there were no quilters in my family.

crafty pat

Most of my family members quilted as they were country people living in areas where quilts were used to keep their family's warm. Just about every home had a quilting frame of some kind in the 30's and 40's. My DGM quilted all her life, my DM stopped in the late 40's and started again in the early 70's. I started my first quilt in the mid 70's and am still loving it. So I guess it is in my blood.

Friday1961

My maternal grandmother was a quilter, both because it was her creative outlet (I believe) and because, with eight children in the house, she needed the quilts! I'm sure her mother also made quilts and I know that other women in her family -- her aunts and nieces -- sewed and made quilts. One of my mother's cousins made a quilt for my first born which I still have. My own mother worked all her life and didn't sew at all, though she did make one quilt as a girl, because it was expected, I think, and which I now have and treasure. I seem to have inherited the domestic skills that skipped my mother, who, in a different era and with different opportunities, would have been a professional career woman. As it was, she just "had a job" for forty years! She took great pleasure in my interest in sewing and I know she would have loved my becoming a quiltmaker.

My paternal grandmother sewed beautifully -- was very talented -- and so I assume she made quilts, too, as most women of her generation did, but if so, she apparently took no pride in it -- I never saw a quilt she made -- and stopped as soon as she could afford to buy blankets. Born and raised in the country, she definitely preferred city life and store bought things! Her daughter (my aunt) was also a skilled seamstress and made many household items -- I remember curtains she made for my grandmother that looked professionally done -- but I don't think she made quilts....probably for the same reason -- she preferred blankets. In those early days, home made quilts indicated a family was too poor to buy blankets and many women hoped to avoid that stigma, I think.

Interesting question - thanks for posting it!

Trene

I started quilting as soon as I was dexterous enough to hold a needle. I'd sit on the dictionary on a dining chair pulled up to the frame that was always set up in our living room. everyone who came to our house quilted. Mind you, I was born in 1960, so most in my neighborhood thought this a bit odd at the time. my grandmother quilted, as did my great aunts (they still do, now in their 90's!). gram was an orphan, and adopted into that family, so I don't know what her personal history was; however, gram had quilts made by her adoptive grandmotther,well mended but still in use when I was a child. I am currently the only one in my generation who quilts, and I just got back into after a 20 year hiatus. nature or nurture? hard to tell, really, but I know that I learned my appreciation for fine needlework from my mom and gram, and I love the feeling I get when I am quilting.