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How Did You Get Started?

How Did You Get Started?

Old 01-20-2009, 10:43 AM
  #21  
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Ahhh I remember my grandma's quilts when I was a child. She took scraps of our old dresses and made something majical from them. A blanket with beautiful sunbonnet sues and stars and blocks that if you stared at them, they became stories and the patterns danced in my head until I learned myself from a checked out library video in davenport iowa.

The first book I ever bought was an Elenore Burns log cabin book. A quilt in a day! You tore the fabric strips and sewed them together. That was b.c. (before cutters)They weren't invented yet. Ha ha ha ... But, being a person who loves family history and tradition. I knew I could do it! And I could.

The first one was a pink and blue floral log cabin, a gift for my best friend's birthday. A queen sized , log cabin in a feilds and furrows setting. As promised by elenore, it was sewn into a top in a day. Then I used the small pink floral as a backing, added the batting and tied hundreds of pink and blue little embrodry thread knots. a labor of love, but oh was I proud to present it to her, on her special day. And she still has it to this day.
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Old 01-20-2009, 11:36 AM
  #22  
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davidmichael, who's your little buddy? if you stop the quilt now, it's just about the right size.
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Old 01-20-2009, 11:55 AM
  #23  
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I thought I was joining a cross stitch group...came away with a handful of scraps and a bit of tracing paper template...this was the result and I was hooked :D
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Old 01-20-2009, 12:47 PM
  #24  
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Great stories everyone. Thanks for sharing.

Well, I have always loved quilts,never thought it would be me quilting. I considered myself more the outdoorsy type, hiking, camping ,horseback riding,dancing and such things are things I love doing. But notice, none of the things menstioned above do I get an end product,some actual thing that I can show and touch, I only figured that out after I made my first quilt.
So anyway, we were at a work contract in Boise ID for three monnths Sep-Dec 2007. It was a little cold, and I was driving home from work first week we got there, and I saw a banner saying: Beginner Quiltmaking classes, iregister inside. Wellm being who I am, I went in and asked the lady behind the counter "I can't sew and don't have a sewing machine, can I still sign up", she said "OH yes, we love your type", well, the rest is history.
I just bought my first sewing machine couple months back, and satarted a second quilt. I love this board for all the help and fun. I use the ternet and books for prosedures. But that class Ii took, really taught me most of the basics that I can now build on.
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Old 01-20-2009, 01:26 PM
  #25  
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I love hearing all these stories!!
My story is that I have always loved looking at quilts and thought how amazing it was that someone put that much time and effort into it and made something absolutely beautiful!!!
When I had my two daughters (8 & 5) I knew I wanted to do something special. I too do the cross stitch thing and love it too!! But I was looking at a magazine and it had a memory quilt in it. I had saved some of my girls pyjamas from the time they were born till their first birthday ( and anything really special to them from then on) and decided I was going to learn how to quilt to make them a quilt out of their pyjamas! Little did I know at that point how addictive this craft is!!! I took my first class two years ago this month! A log cabin table runner!! I loved it!! So now I still have the girls pyjamas and stuff but I am doing other stuff first! I tell my husband that I have to get 'better' at quilting before I tackle working on the girls quilts!! I have always told myself that I am not giving myself a time limit for their quilts!! I figure they will probably be wedding gifts!
So now I am just enjoying and learning what I can from classes at my LQS and from this wonderful board!!! Thanks for all your help everyone!!!
Kendra :D :D
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Old 01-20-2009, 06:48 PM
  #26  
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Thanks for sharing your stories!!
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Old 01-20-2009, 07:01 PM
  #27  
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I've always liked the color in quilts, and I love to feel fabrics, so I wanted to do it myself! Was in Lee Wards and they were offering a class in the late 80s, so I signed up and the rest as they say is history! Took the class, joined a guild, went to guilt shows, bought books, wathced TV shows, visited quilt shops whenever I was in different cities, or travelling to anywhere. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the challenges and seeing all the new stuff! Can't wait to get started on my next project! Or to finish my present project! :lol:
And I love buying new fabrics with no idea what I will do with them, but I want them all!!!!!!
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Old 01-20-2009, 07:36 PM
  #28  
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Marty, thanks for starting this thread. I love reading everyone's stories.

Like a lot of you, I started sewing when I was a child, took home ec, made my own clothes, etc, was not a stranger to a sewing machine.

I made my first quilt in 1982 from a kit-it was a queen size log cabin--I still have it. I used cardboard templates and hand pieced (except the borders) and hand quilted it. By the time I was finished with it I hated everything about quilting!!!

Fast forward to Fall 1999, Carlisle, PA. My next door neighbor informs me that she is going to start a neighborhood quilt group and invites me to join. I looked at her with disdain and said that I cross stitch, but I would NEVER quilt again! Never say never!! I joined the group and for 2 months I X-stitched while others worked on their quilts. By Christmas I owned a rotary cutter, mat, rulers, fabric and was finishing my first wallhanging! Quilting had come a long way in those 17 years. The rest is history!! And that X-stitch I was working on---it is still not finished!!!
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Old 01-21-2009, 08:25 AM
  #29  
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I made my first quilt when I was in high school. I tacked it. I wasn't pleased. I have sewed since I was 6 years old making doll & Barbie clothes. My dear beloved grandmother taught me to knit at about 7. Don't remember her sewing that much when I was there but we always got some cute doll or clothes & knitted Barbie clothes. My mother had been making quilt tops & crossing stitching lots of pictures but she got real sick a few years ago and gave me all of her quilting stash, patterns & the like. I retired 5 years ago in April so I have almost lots of time on my hands. I saw a quilt throw at Dillard's Dept. Store & thought I could make that. It was in my son's favorite college colors & theme. So that is where it started. I have made close to 25 quilts the past couple of years. Have 5 that need quilting. Just got the material to make youngest grandson a big boy quilt. They all (5) got baby quilts. Got an embroidery machine this past year in Nov & now I'm going to incorporate that into quilting.
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Old 01-21-2009, 11:48 AM
  #30  
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I never saw a quilt before in my life until I met my husband. I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to make a blanket when you can just buy a comforter in the store that's probably warmer anyway.

My mother was a home ec goddess. She was one of the first women (and first non caucasian) that graduated from a fashion school in NY. She crocheted, knitted, sewed you name it. She would go with my aunts (her inlaws) to craft fairs. She never bought anything, and wouldn't let anyone else buy anything either. She would just go home and make it....from looking at it once. When I was growing up in the early 1980's, she would get catalogs in the mail and then make whatever was in them without the pattern.

She never taught me...any of her gifts. She had gone to college in the 60's and I came along a little later than she had planned. She felt the women's movement had come along enough that she didn't have to teach me anything. She really thought that knowing how to make beautiful things was keeping me into the "mold" that so many women have to do. She didn't teach me how to cook or anything that could be considered feminine work. I still have no clue how to sew. I'd love to learn someday.

When I married, my MIL had little patience for me. She couldn't understand why I didn't know how to do ANYTHING. She let me help her make a quilt for my nieces a year or so after we married. It was very complicated and she went really fast. I think she meant to teach me a lesson, but I got a hunger for making quilts that has had me ever since. She helped me pick out a beginner machine a year or so later when I drove her crazy constantly asking about different machines. I signed up for a beginner class at Hancock's. I think that I learned to cut backwards, so that's a hard thing for me to do, but I still have the quilt bug.

My first 4 quilts were all the same pattern. Lap size rail fences. My husband's family raved about them and I've been making stuff since. 90% of what I have made, I have made in a group for charity. I've made 6 total lap size now and one queen....but countless full and twin size for charity.

My MIL ended up becoming my best friend and a good mother substitute for me. When she passed away in 2007, I was blind with grief. I got quilter's block so bad. It was people here that helped me out of it. I kept some small squares of fabric she had helped me pick out for a friend with cancer. I kept the left over squares, sewed them, and framed them. They now hang in my sewing room....with a picture of my MIL and I presenting a quilt to a charity. I will always have reminders...but I thank God everyday that she showed me my new passion. It really brought us together.

Once both of my mothers were gone, I started accumulating clothing from both of them. I don't have enough of one mom or the other to make a quilt, so I will make one that honors both of them at once.

My latest quilt, a lap size for my grandmother, has incorporated many patterns and nuances that my dear MIL taught me. I know that I will carry her gift with me everywhere.

Melissa
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