Awhile back my dh asked me "why do you sew? Nobody sews anymore." Hmmm? My reply was I don't know, its what I do, its what we do. We being my family. Ive always done it. My first sewing machine was a holly hobby battery operated. I was around 7 or 8. By the time I was a preteen I was crocheting also. Embroidery and cruel, chicken scrathes, In high school I helped teach the needleworks class. Was the president of the Future homemakers of America Club.

Then I got to thinking, I've always had the obsession with linen also. Even before I started quilting, I've only been quilting about 8 yrs. But my linen obsession has been a life long thing. I can remember going through moms linen closest and loving how it smelled, the pretty colors, the softer sheets, flannel, grannies quilts. As I got older and had my own home I started buying tons of linen, couldnt get enough sheets or blankets in the house. I would keep every little scrap of fabric from my sewing projects like curtains, halloween costumes. So my thinking is it must be genetic, or somehow what I'm supposed to do, my purpose. I imagine the my genetic dna strand looks like knotted threads or scrappy irish chain quilt.

How old were you when the obsession started?

I still have the first quilt made for me by my mother and grandmother. Learned how to tie my shoes under the quilting frame while it was being quilted. I guess I just came wired for fabric!:):)

I learned to crochet and knit at the age of 7. I had a little sewing machine when I was ten. It was plastic and hand crank operated. It made a chain stitch. My grandma taught me to do button hole stitches very early also. At the age of 17 I only owned clothes made by myself. The summer before my senior year I spent it sewing. I stopped for a while and when I was pregnant of my son I sent out to DMC for a little Koala bear that came with Aida, thread needle, a pattern and instructions to learn to cross stitch. I now have a huge collection of patterns, threads and fabrics, all in storage. In 2001 a friend asked me to finish a cross stitch. I did and for the payment I asked for quilting classes. After 2 classes I was hooked and went on my own. The rest is history.

My sisters and me learned to sew watching Mom. She made all our clothes, and as she cut and sewed she showed how it was done. She made it a game. I thought everybody new how to sew. Was I surprised when I found out that people did not even know how to sew a button on.
My daughter does not sew, yet she can knows basic sewing if she had to do it. She also watched my mother and me sew. My other daughter is learning to sew.

I learned to crochet as a child, but never did much with it aside from simple baby blankets. I got my first sewing machine three years ago, and didn't do much with that, either, until the end of August this year when I decided I wanted to make a quilt. I had NO idea what making a quilt entailed, nobody in my family sews or quilts outside of basic mending...I just wanted to make a quilt. And so, an addiction is born... :lol:

I had 3 sisters that were gifted to sew and a neice a few years younger than myself. You women were give a wonderful gift to be soooo thankful for.

I love hearing all you womens little stories. Keep them coming please.

I do think it's something in our blood. I love to sew, have loved sewing since I was a little girl. My Mom, however, hates anything to do with a sewing machine. My Dad's mother, and all of his sisters sewed. One sister worked for Singer for years. Unfortunately, none of them lived close enough to me to teach me anything. When my paternal grandmother passed away, dad inherited her machine because he had bought it for her. A Pfaff 130.

I would beg for fabric every time we went to town. Starated out making aprons for my other grandmother. That was something I could come up with without a pattern. Then I took home ec and learned a little more there.

I didn't sew much after I first got married until a good friend of ours made my husband a western shirt. He went on and on and on and on....ooing and awing over it. I thought, I can do that just as good as she can! So, I bought my first machine and started making his shirts. For years he didn't have a store bought shirt. I saved all of my scraps for years and finally decided to make quilts with them, so here I am. I don't have the room to really lay out fabric to cut out clothes. But, I can cut out quilt pieces, so at the moment I've having fun with quilting.

too young to remember. I was always allowed to design and sew with left over fabric.

I have had a passion for fabrics from about age 12. I have sewed since I was about 10. It has drifted in and out but then I retired and took up quilting--the passion is back.

you've conjured up a memory for me... I was 9 years old and went to a thrift store with my friend & her mother. There was a Blue, hand-turned sewing machine up on the shelf behind the counter. I just stood and stared. Oh how I Wanted it. I remember it clear as day. When I got home, I asked my mom if she would buy it for me. lol... That was not happening. But I've never forgotten that little machine. I bought myself a basic model singer when I was 20 years old. I made dresses for my little girl, and many household things, and even some patternless quilts inspired by magazines & my imagination; except, I didn't think of them as quilts, but Comforters. I finally got into quilting in 1999. It felt like coming home.

My grandmother was a home-ec teacher....she was always sewing (lived right behind us). Though I didn't sew much!!! When my daughter was born, I took a Stretch N Sew class -- and off I went! Then after the kids were gone, I almost stopped completely. Three years ago, DH bought me a Janome after I saw it in a shop --- the new techniques for quilting had been hooked!!!!

As a kid, my maternal grama taught me to crochet and do embroidery. I tinkered in other stuff, but at age 22 I bought myself a machine and a sewing kit, ordered two quilt kits, and taught myself to quilt. Haven't looked back!

I think my obsession started very early before the age of 10. I made almost all of my own clothes by 14 but before that I was making some clothing. But the trips to the fabric store .. at that time JC Penneys was "the " place to go for fabric. It was the only place my mom just let us wander.. and we would call for her if we ( me and my sisters) if there was a particular bolt that we all just had to see and touch. I think we could have spent hours there , it seemed like paradise. We would find a fabric and imagine what it could become. I still have that feeling when I find a great fabric store... .now I wish my sisters and Mom lived closer so we could share in the vision of what fabrics might become.

Wow, I'm a late starter! I always loved doing crafts as a child but nothing with fabric. In high school the lady I babysat for taught me how to knit and I fell in love with it.
I knitted in college. Then I learned crewel and embroidery, then cross-stitch. I started sewing when my first son was born. I HATED sewing before that! What a funny memory! My Mom and my bf's Mom signed us up for a summer sewing class in high school and we never even went! (What brats lol)
We made believe we went but we just goofed around taking walks and stuff like that.
Most of my family does not sew. In fact I'm the only one!
And I can't stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I found an old long shuttle sewing machine up in our haymow when I was probably eight or ten. I asked my mom if she could make it work and she climbed up there and cleaned and oiled and adjusted that old machine so that it ran pretty good. It was a hot place to sew in the summer heat but I didn't even notice because I was so busy sewing doll clothes. After I married I made clothing for my kids, shirts for my husband, did upholstery for his antique cars, and learned to quilt. I also crochet and knit. It has been a wonderful ride and I wouldn't change it for anything.

My DH knows why I quilt... It's my therapy, and he agrees, he probably coudn't afford the other kind, if he ever took my machines away from me.... LOL

My mom sewed,(I remember sewing buttons to fabric when I was 4 or 5) and two of my three sisters sewed too. In HS and college, just about everything I wore was made by me. I worked in fabric stores, loved to help others create their own fashions.... Dad bought us a ping pong table one year at a second hand shop. I don't think we hardly ever played ping pong, but two of us could cut out patterns at the same time. SOmetimes there would be 3 sewing machines all humming along in the basement at the same time! good memories....

I used to tailor my own jackets, and coats... enjoyed the process all the way.... I took my first "quilting class" in 1974, with my sister in law. We've both been quilting ever since.... I don't make my own clothes anymore, in fact i've gotten rid of all my patterns.... *none of them would fit me anymore anyway).... and if it's not quilting fabric, I got rid of it too! my stash is 100% quiltable....

I was 6. I got a cute little kids Electric Singer for Christmas and my dad taught me how to sew troll doll clothes and barbie clothes. I've never stopped sewing. :D

This is an interesting angle. Does anyone know what an hour of therapy costs at a psychologist or a psychiatrist (for those who need medicine) Isn't it about $100/hour?

That actually buys quite a bit of fabric. Our husbands should be GRATEFUL for our habit! ;0

jsutflyingin, 8 years ago when I divorced i went to a therapist $92 an hour. He sent me to an actual shrink $180 an hour for him to tell me I was not crazy that my husband was an ass. Which was something I already knew, LOL. About 6 months after we split up is when I started my first full size quilt. It has been good therapy for me also. But I went to the therapist once a month and the shrink every other month. I've been looking over my sewing spending for the last six months and I think the shrink might have been cheaper..LOL. Dont tell DH.

I love hearing everyones stories, would love to hear more.

A junior in high school. Lol we have the same DNA sistah!

My Grandmother started me on embroidery at the tender age of 7 or 8. Then it was 4-H and sewing aprons and making my own clothes. When I went to work, with husband and 2 boys, I didn't have time to sew on a button! Now thatI'm retired, I took up quilting as a hobby and absolutely love it. My avatar is 1st Queen size quilt made for niece's wedding.

started at 51. I used safety pins and staples to patch my clothes...don't laugh, staples work pretty good every where but pockets. then u get a bloody finger.... I have been as sock darner since childhood....drove everybody crazy, still does.

No one in my family sews but me. My mom did sew when we were young but didn't later on. She did crochet and do some needlework. I am the only crocheter in my family. My brother's daughter does crochet some. The first Christmas we were married my DH bought me a sewing machine and I have had one ever since - 46 years.

I started playing with my mother's threads and fabrics and especially scissors when I was four or five. Finally when I was nine, my mom said there is my featherweight and all the sewing stuff I have, "Go and do what you have to do." From then on, I was constantly cutting and stitching. One of the older ladies at church helped me a little as my mom really only did mending once in a while. From then on I did all her mending (I loved it) and by the time I was 13 was making all my clothes and many outfits for my sisters and my mom. I would spend all my babysitting money on fabric and bought my first Singer Touch and Sew at 15. When I was 16, I started my first quilt (Monkey Wrench) to use up my steadily accumulating scraps and I've been stitching ever since.

My mother had me using a needle and embroidery thread at two years old. My summerz were spent embroidering our Christmas presents. She taught me to crochet before I started to school. In seventh grade I finally talked her into getting me some knitting needles and yarn so that my grandmother could teach me to knit. I knit my first sweater to wear to eighth grade. I made doll clothes and our family pajamas on the treadle machine. While still in grade school, Mother made all the clothes our family wore and I did all the handwork, except buttonholes. My grandmother made beautiful buttonholes and that was her job. There was little room to put a quilt in the frames in our house, so the little quilting I did as a kid was a few stitches when my paternal grandmother and aunt were visiting and a quilt was in the frames. I opted to stay home rather than teach while my children were small and made all our clothes plus clothes for others to supplement out income. At 65 I wanted to retire so that I could knit, crochet, tat, and quilt. Now I can't do it fast enough to keep up with all the scraps of fabric and yarn that are given me because someone else is cleaning house and I sm still using such items.

My mother always made all my clothes, and most of my brothers'. We lived in the country with no playmates, so I would sit on the floor beside my mother with the scrapbox and make clothes for my doll. Then I gravitated to making my own clothes. When I started school on the first day of 6th grade I wore a skirt and blouse that I made myself, hand made buttonholes and all. A number of years ago I went back to Mich to visit my brother; he took me to see a guy I went to high school with. The guy looked at me and the first thing he said was, "Do you still sew?" That blew me away to think that that was how I was remembered from 40 years ago.

Believe it or not, i Hated sewing when i was young. I flunked home-ec class with my sewing project! It wasn't until i was married with kids that i got the "bug" Started with kids PJ's moved on the sweatsuits and jackets then to quilting and that was it. I can sew most anything but quilting pieces are my true passion! My sister still teases me about the ugly dress i made for home ec class. But she Loves her Quilt!

My PGM taught me to embroider when I was six. My sister can embroider - but never has time. Actually, never takes the time to embroider (LOL)! I self taught myself to sew clothes - thanks to Simplicity patterns. This was in HS. After I was married my MIL and I took classes for knitting and crocheting. Then, I took needlepoint. When I was expecting my first child, I took quilting lessons from a retired nun. The knitting and crocheting classes were taught by a nun, as well. Anyways, I was hooked after that! What really burns me is that my sister was given my PGM's treadle machine! To this day, I don't know why she kept it as I'm the only one in the family who sews. Oh Well!!

I have always been facinated by fabric.When I was little, we didn't have many [places to store our clothes that were out of season, so we put them between the mattresses and springs. On top of a sheet of course. I used to love to choose the way they should be placed. Quilts have always facinated me but only in the last 7 years have they become so intriqueing to me.

I was the only crafty person in my family growing up. I made lots of hair accessories. Nobody in my family sewed. There were also no quilts in our house! I had never touched a sewing machine until 5 yrs. ago. My MIL taught me how to use one. I started because I wanted to make my daughter some dresses. I started quilting one year ago and have never looked back!

Nearly Every thing you wear or own is sewn From our Clothes we buy to the seat covers on our cars . I learn to sew from Grandmother when I was small My sister and I used to a peddle machine I sewed she run the peddle since we were not big enough to reach both The main problem was getting her to stop when I wanted her to but we made lots of Doll clothes that way

I have always loved arts and crafts. I didn't much care for dolls or barbies, but I loved making things. I had those plastic looms you used loops to make potholders and that spinny thing you dropped paint into. Apparently, I was really into my lite brite as well. I remember spending hours trying to fix my mom's ancient Singer, but could only get it to do a few stitches before breaking again. One day, I spent hours collecting bits of cardboard and fabric and glue making my own shoes. They didn't even make it to the bottom of the driveway, but the interest was clearly there.

My life might have been different I had someone to guide me in my interests. My mom didn't do anything crafty and left my dad as a single dad most of the time. Dad did his best though, and I was the best (and only) little girl in my schools wood working club! Then I got into a super tough academic program and had to drop art.

When I turned 27, I decided to teach myself to cook. That sparked a passion that inspired me to pick up art again. Then I taught myself to knit. Then 6 months ago I got my dream sewing machine. Now I'm hooked on quilting.

I remember sewing on my grandmothers treadle when I was about 5 or 6. I made my dolly's clothes. Later when I started having the kids, made most of their clothes and today I make all of my husbands shirts. Thats easy, he likes black western with snaps. LOL My grandmother and great aunt had made a broken Lone Star. I always want to make one, but by the time I started, they had both passed and I couldn't figure out how to do it. Finally found a pattern and have been busy ever since. Made a few different tops, but always come back the the Lone Star. Besides reading to relax, I have started doing genelogy and that in itself is addictive!!! Any Wrights, Hornsbys or VanCleaves out there? LOL

No one in my family sewed. My Mother hated it, has a GD with same feeling, my Father darned his own socks. Her friend taught me how to knit when I was in first grade. I never forgot it and went to the yarn shop and took lessons while in HS. Also took HomeEc and learned to sew. I love all needlework, so it has to come from an older generation.

When I was around 2 years old I would beg my Grandmother to let me sew. She would thread a large needle and give me large buttons to sew onto scraps of fabric. When I was 4-5 years old I started helping my Grandmother recycle clothing, etc into beautiful quilts. Her favorite was 9-patch blocks. I taught myself to knit and crochet when I was 12....started cross-stitching in my early 20's.

I was 7 and in 4-H, now 30+++ years later, I still sew, but quilt too. My grandbabies are the receivers now for clothes, course, I still do a few western shirts for my hubby.

I, too, grew up in a family that sewed and did all types of needlework. Crochet, tatting (I wish I could), huck embroidery, cut work, quilting and making clothes. My Grannie was never without something in her hands. I was very fortunate to have both Grandmothers and 2 Great-Grandmothers until I was grown. My Mother sewed and knitted. She made Christmas stockings for all the family down to Great Nieces and Nephews. Over 100 made and she is missed.

I remember my maternal grandma hand quilting in a frame in her big "front room" and she had an old Singer she let me play with until I jammed it one time too many, I was probably 7 or 8. My mom sewed occasionally, little Easter dresses & bonnets for my sister and I. By the time my brother came along she had given it up. One years Christmas though, she made a whole wardrobe for my Barbies on the sly, I couldn't believe the late hours she must have put in to make them a surprise (and I still have them around here somewhere, not the dolls, just their clothes, lol). My paternal grandma was always crocheting and she made those fancy angels you dip in starch, for tree toppers & stuff. And could she quilt! She's still a professional quilter with several of her sisters, they have a joint owned longarm business & ship quilts all over the world. I wish she lived closer to me, when I went out for my dad's funeral she showed me the business & taught me to miter corners (ugh, I was distracted & wish I'd payed attention, mine stink). I had just started dabbling in quilting at that time. I grew up with sewing around me but I never even took home-ec (rocked the wood shop though!). I really started sewing after I got married and my ex taught me to sew, he had lots of sisters and his mom insisted everyone learn :) For years I made all of my girls clothes except socks & jeans, I remember some really cute modest bathing suits I made so they didn't look like little 'hoochies' LOL.

I do know it is my blood, I have been sewing 57 years non-stop. I would not know what to do if I could not sew. I learned at 13yrs old in home ec. Took off right away. I taught my mother to sew and I remember making her rip it out and do it over. I think as a teen I could make all my clothes that my parents could not afford to buy me. i would stay up until midnight making something. It has been a wonderful life with my sewing. Suzanne

I can't remember ever NOT sewing. When I was 4 or 5 I managed to run the sewing machine needle through my finger (total accident, hard to explain) and I guess it created a permanent attachment! LOL!! When I became old enough to babysit, all my money went to buy bulk fabrics at the general store. Yes, sewing is in my blood.