Not yet. My Mom sewed for years and years (no quilting) and then stopped sewing when she hit 65. She's only sewn one time since then and that was to make my Dad a bunch of shirts. Now she just gives me her mending (currently making her 3 pairs of jammies). She just decided she was done with that and it no longer gave her joy. I have no doubt that my Dad's health issues and the resulting stress played a roll (she is now 77).

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Amen to that!

When I worked I did no piecing/quilting at all....still purchased fabric, read books, etc. It was just too much trouble to get all that out for the little time I had with all the kiddo activities at night and on weekends.

It shows you how utterly immersive and addictive quilting is, that we are looking at it as something where it's deeply surprising if you stop.

I've had the odd month or so off, but nothing beyond that. Mind you, I've only been quilting for four years, and sometimes I am too ill to do anything much anyway.

A nice story about getting back into quilting: I started quilting largely because of a friend who talked me into it. We live at opposite ends of the country, but she still provided lots of encouragement and practical support. We both have severe ME/CFIDS, by the way, which can throw a spanner in the works big time. Anyway, she hadn't quilted in a while. I discovered Welsh quilting, fell madly in love with it, had a feeling she'd like it too, and sent her a book on the subject. Next thing you know, she had made this fantastic big bedspread quilt as a wedding present for her sister, designing it all herself based on the techniques in the book (Making Welsh Quilts by Jenkins, which I recommend highly). Her sister's wife is Welsh, which made it even more appropriate, and the gift was ready in time for the wedding and hugely appreciated. Then she and her flatmate designed a lovely quilt for a friend of theirs in hospital. Then she started work on a quilt for her flatmate. So the moral of the story is that sometimes you can pull yourself out of a rut by finding a new creative direction to explore.

te=maine ladybug]NOOOOOOOO!!!![/quote]

Never to the point of departing with any of my quilting supplies

Yep, right after I stuck a needle in my finger. Decided to give up. After all, I'd already done that a few times. I got over it when I could quilt again. My MIL taught me to quilt. Now she has passed and I'm still quilting her tops . She gave me a boat load of tops.YIPPIE Now I'm doing crazy quilting as I love to do embroidery. During the cold months I sane quilt. No I never said I was sane. hehe

Quilting is like riding a bike .... once you do it, you can always DO it .... but you don't always WANT to do it .... and certainly not all the time .....

There are a number of reasons people put aside hobbies and passions. Some for health reasons, some for financial reasons, and some for lack of an audience to appreciate his/her efforts, some because they have lost their crafting-quilting buddies.... they develop other interests and just don't have the time to do more at the same time .....you name it ....

Some start too early and burn out ... put it aside for a few years, and start back on smaller projects instead of bed-size, show-quality stuff ...

Maybe she feels your quilting has started to surpass her own mastery and is now overwhelmed or intimidated or feels compelled to push beyond her comfort zone to keep up with the young whipper-snappers that enter quilt shows.

Maybe she's done all the standard, traditional patterns and has run out of ideas....Does she belong to this Board where she can get a spark of new ideas to get her fires rekindled?

Did she do machine and/or hand quilting? .... and now would secretly love to move on to long-arming but feels it is a frivolous expense at this age to invest in the equipment? ...

Is she ready to move on to teaching? ... or giving pep-talks to young quilters? ....

You don't have toalways be "quilting" to be a "QUILTER" ... there are many of us who quilt-a-little but are passionate to see what others accomplish, pay to go to quilt shows to support the art, join in on this board, or just talk it up to the younger generation....

Have you checked to see what your mom's underlying problem is? If it is a "problem" at all ... Maybe she's had an unwelcome change in eyesight, or notices on-coming arthritis, or something else .....

Maybe it's an emotional thing? have all her quilting buddies dwindled by death, retirement/relocation or ill health?

Is she getting rid of the "stuff" by giving it to you - or selling it? .. maybe she has more need of the income than she needs the fabric and all the attendant gadgets? .....

Why does it concern you, personally, that she is giving up quilting? .... These are rhetorical questions... they don't need to be answered on this board publicly. You have to answer only to yourself - I'm not being nosy ... this is between your mom and yourself...... get her to talk it out with you.

You'll find it out .... You are being kind to be concerned ....

I know posts get put on her instantenously and often overlap in content... so if these ideas havealready been said, sorry for the repeat...

I did for a while, but not by choice. I was working in a position that totally consumed my life. That was for about 10 years and everything was even packed up in boxes. Totally different now and I wonder how I ever let that happen.

I also stopped most needle arts in my late 30's and early 40's after sewing most of my life. I was busy raising a family and thought I was just too busy (and exhausted). In my late 40's, I picked up rug hooking but found I loved quilting better. Thankfully, I didn't give much of my stash away. Now my children are in college and I'm trying to help them financially so back to work I go. I try to squeeze in as much sewing as possible. I don't think I realized what having "no time" was whenever I was younger! I don't think I'll be stopping soon, just getting started. I dream of the day I can stay home all day and play.