CajunQuilter2

I did not know how to sew AT ALL when I met my friend Deb. She is a quilter but also likes to do crafty things. We worked together and as we became really good friends I would go to her house and we would work on crafty things. I would cut and put together our projects and she would sew them. We started out with making little tie baskets, then moved on to fabric bowls then on to quilted purses. When we were first making the baskets she said to me "here you sew one." Told her I could not sew a straight line, she said "sure you can." So I sewed and she said "your right, you can't sew a straight line." :-) What?? Did she think I was fibbing to her. :-). Anyway after a few months of just watching her I decided I could do it, bought a machine and took off. I mostly made quilted purses for the first year. I have only been doing quilts for about 2 years. Even took her to a local quilt show in Shreveport for her birthday before I even sewed a stitch. There is where I fell in love with the fabric, who cares if I ever make anything with it. :-) It is 5 years later and I have still NOT made anything with the fabric I bought at that show. I just love looking at it.
Anyway was living in Ga for a year while hubby was on a long term project with his company. My friend came to spend a week with me and one day she said, pick out 5 of your favorite patterns of your purple stash and we are gonna make a quilt. So that is what I did and have not stopped since.

memathomas

i will have to wait for quite in my house so i can share my story
mema

cjomomma

Thank You for your stories. I have read each one and have enjoyed all of your stories. I am looking forward to reading more.
I also had a grandmother that quilted but she never showed me how to do it. I would have loved to had some of her stuff when she passed but an Aunt of mine made sure she took everything and left nothing for my mom or her siblings or the grand kids. I could have learned a lot from her but she liked to keep all her secrets a secret.

CajunQuilter2

My grandmother did hand quilting and I have the quilt she did for me as I was the first grandchild on that side of the family. It is pink satin on one side and blue satin on the other. I am the oldest of 5 and we were all baptized it that blanket, my son was brought home from the hospital in it and I will pass it on to him and his soon to be wife for their children. While she was still living I had her make me another one of the same pattern only it is yellow and green satin that will also be passed on to my children and grandchildren.

Honey

I started making my own cloths when in 8th grade. I made an ugly brown jumper and decided that I could do better. My mom said you can have three outfits for the start of school if you buy them or at least 6 if you make them. I also loved the idea of no one else haveing an outfit like mine. Also, my dad was always great about slipping me a few dollars for fabric. When I got married, my DH bought me a portable Singer. I used that to make almost all of the cloths for my 4 kids, myself and a few for DH. As we had the kids, I would take scraps and make quilts for them. They were always tied. When I look at some of them now I think OMG, are those bad. But they kept everyone warm. When my first DGS was born he was very premature (weighed 2 1/2 pds.) so I made all of his cloths because preemy stuff was so expensive. I sewed sporadically for a few years, as life got in the way. Then our local fabric store went more to quilting and I would see the beautiful quilts when I'd go in and think "I'm going to do that some day". Then someday came and I decided to take a class so I could do it rite. Also, my Grammy made beautiful quilts, but no one else in my family did. I decided I wanted to do something different from everyone else. My mom did all kinds of needle work and my sister is a very talented seamstress. but other than an occasional tied quilt, neither of them quilted. I needed to know that I could do something that they didn't do. There isn't anything that they couldn't do. I guess that comes from being the youngest of a very tallented family of 9. That was about 5 years ago. I am still taking classes and learning everything I can. I meet with my quilt group once a week and believe me that has saved my sanity (or what I have left of it) more times than I can count. I have a stash and a to do list that will keep me busy until I am at least 273 (that's if I never buy another thing!!). As when I was young and making my own cloths, I love the idea of my quilts being a one of a kind in that what are the odds of someone else using the exact same fabric for the exact same quilt. I will keep sewing and learning for as long as God lets me and I will teach my 5 grandsons how to quilt, too.

mequilter

I started quilting about 12 years ago, went into a JoAnn's and found a wallhanging pattern that I just fell in love with. After picking out the fabric for it & finishing it up, I was hooked. I've donated a couple of quilts for local fundraisers and hope to do more in the near future. The past 1 1/2 years I've been unable to work due to health issues, quilting has kept me "sane." Even when I was unable to sew there were always magazines or patterns to dream of or friends on the computer to chat with. I'm so happy that I've found this wonderful hobby.

IrishNY

My mother sewed like a seamstress and tried to teach me a bunch of times, but I had no intention of being my mother and refused to learn. When my second child (first daughter) was born, I decided I wanted to take a holiday picture of my children with my daughter wearing a red jumper and white turtleneck. I could not stand the frilly stuff that was available to buy. So I bought the fabric, cut it out, sewed about half and then got stuck. The day before the picture appointment, I called my mom and said "help!". She finished it in about a half hour. On the way home, I decided she wouldn't be around forever and I better learn to do it myself. I taught myself and sewed most of my 4 kids clothes when they were young.

Not long after I learned to sew, I saw a one day class for quilting and signed up. Partly because I wanted to learn and partly because I was desperate for a day away from the kids. It's been about 20 years and I haven't made a garment in the last 12 but the quilting bug still has a hold on me.

BTW, my mom is still going strong and actually started quilting about 4 years ago. :wink:

Pat and pups

Since I was raised by a woman who had to pay someone to replace a button, I didn't learn to sew as a kid. Then I took Home Ec and learned in 8th grade. I told my mother I needed a sewing machine. She (wisely) decided this was another thing I wanted to do and would soon tire of it and quit--she knew me very well. She did buy me a sewing machine that was so old it had a long bobbin. She gave me a rickety old card table to put it on. Every time I got up any speed, the table would shake until I slowed down. I made most of my school clothes on that old machine.

When my daughter was a newborn, she gave me a new machine! I took a children's sewing course from adult ed. and learned how to make darling little dresses and play clothes. My daughter never wore store bought clothes until I went back to school and became a teacher. My life was so busy I sewed only occasionally until my daughter was pregnant and we decided to make the baby a quilt. Neither of us knew a thing about quilting and took turns sewing little squares into long strips. Our biggest problem was her idea of a quarter inch seam was different from mine so we spent a lot of time ripping, but we did get it made. I swore I'd never make another quilt.

About 15 years ago another puppy raiser showed me all the quilts she'd made, and I figured if Nancy could quilt, I could too. I'm hooked!

DeneK

Somewhere around the mid 1980's when I discovered online Bulletin Board systems (like Prodigy), quite by accident, I found a quilting group on the old GE BBS called GEnie. This was an amazing group of people -- totally accepting, friendly, and supportive of each other. I tried to learn to quilt just so I could count myself a member of such a special group. Mostly I just did fabric swaps and made blocks for swaps or special projects for members. I finished a couple of baby quilts. GE sold the BBS and the group kinda melted away and I didn't touch quilting again until a couple of years ago.

Now I know that "every" quilting group is made up of accepting, friendly and supportive people. So I gotta keep trying to be a quilter so I can count myself among them.
:D

mpeters1200

I've thought a long time about what makes up my story...it has two parts. I apologize in advance for it's length.

My mother was an excellent seamstress, both machine and by hand. She could look at a catalogue and just make it. She crocheted and knitted without patterns. But she never made quilts. I was a very hyperactive and moody child. I think my mom was waiting for me to calm down a little to show me, but by the time that happened, my mother was very ill and couldn't teach me. My grandmother, another accomplished seamstress on my father's side, had taken over raising my little brother and didn't have time. I was so jealous of our family being split up, I wouldn't have learned anyway. All of our blankets were store bought and were either actual blankets or comforters...bed spreads my parents called them.

When I was in high school, I could choose between a language and Home Ec, so I picked a language. My understanding was the Home Ec was a girly course and I really wanted to learn a language.

Fast forward to my marriage. I am my husband's second-wife and his family was very, very close to his first wife. When we married, my MIL made it clear I was not her DIL as she already had one. She didn't make us a wedding quilt. She didn't forgive me for marrying her son until our second child was born. We went there for a visit when i saw quilts for the first time. I couldn't imagine cutting up fabric to turn around and sew it back together again. My MIL had the flu and had promised my nieces quilts by Easter and we went down the weekend before. She decided I was going to help her. Well, I couldn't sew straight, which just confirmed to her that I wasn't the right pick for her son. She had cut all these denim things out and I couldn't sew anything together to save my life. She got out a marker and marked a line on her machine and told me to make the edge of it stay on the line. I started piecing and slowly watched these denim quilts come to life. Then, plaid flannel for the backing and my MIL was too tired to tack it....so she showed me how.

By the end of the weekend, she had gotten out some of her quilts that she always put away when we visited, and gave me the names of the patterns. I couldn't imagine a woman making a blanket from scratch and it being used 4 generations later. She never believed that my family had never made quilts. My hubby had to convince her that all they had were blankets and I'd never seen anything like that before.

My second son was born 2 months later bearing her middle name. I think between my son and helping her quilt her opinion of me softened. My birthday that year, she picked out a small machine to start on. I think she thought I'd get tired of it and give her the machine back. Then, with a lot of prodding, hubby gave me the gift of my first and only quilt class. That was it, I was hooked.

My MIL...I don't know...would give me these intricate pieces and then be almost satisfied when I couldn't put them together. I had the quilt bug none the less, and since we lived 500 miles away, just did my own thing. Joined a little quilt for charity group and just plodded along. In the following 2 years, my MIL started getting closer and our opinions of eachother changed a lot. She started introducing me to people as her sons' wife and then her daughter in law.

We moved down there 20 months before my MIL died and we were friends by then. I joined her quilt group and some of those women quilted with her Grandmother. I learned hand quilting from them and learned all about southern hospitality and quilting bees that still exist today. My MIL ended up my best friend and as close to me as my own mother. I cannot piece without thinking of her nor can I quilt without knowing she's there with me.

I am still in contact and friends with some of her friends from the club. They never fail to tell me how proud she would have been seeing how far my work has come. It's the biggest compliment I could have.

I made a sampler for my Grandmother a year after my mother finally died. She couldn't get over my little "hobby" and proudly displays it for company calling me an artist. Being a quilter has become part of me like being a wife and being a mother.

My father-in-law met and married one of the nicest women I've ever met. She influences my quilting as well as a lot of things she does by hand including making my father-in-law a double wedding ring. I've been graced by 2 MIL's who have influenced me a lot.