I started sewing again about 4 yrs ago. Then while on vacation this past Apr. I met a lady in the hotel we were staying in who mentioned she had finished a t-shirt quilt in her room. The social butterfly that I am I asked if she'd teach me and she said yes! We did a baby quilt (10in rectangles). I've been hooked ever since and made a new friend in the deal!! She and I keep in touch and she says now her daughters have asked to learn as they were jealous of the time we were spending together :-)

It was 1976, when I made my first full size quilt. Before that I would play around with scraps and make blocks. This wa all in the dark ages , before the rotary cutter. I can not tell you how many "projects" never made it to completion. It was just to boring to trace and cut each piece.
Then the rotary cutter .... a life changing invention! Then long Arm quilting ..... wow ... whats next !!! And my Grandmother was excited for a Zig Zag machine.

I helped my mother make a king size quilt from all her stash she had collected from sewing all our clothes for several years. I was 10! She never made another quilt!
I sewed a lot of my own clothes over the years, but didn't start quilting until August 2009 when a co worker said,"Yes, you can."

And... YES I CAN!" Quilt, sew, create, design.... love doing it all.

We lived in Newark NJ in a 4th floor walk-up apartment in 1969. I worked across the street from the Newark Museum which was free admission for residents. I went there every day at lunch break and looked at the antique quilts. A curator showed me a top, underneath, where it was stitched, and eureka, the lightbulb came on over my head. I started sewing quilts like the ones in the museum.

I used cereal boxes for templates, scissors for cutting, and hands for stitching. I hand sewed and hand quilted for 20 yrs until I finally got a sewing machine.

Now I'm a professional quilter with clients in 14 states and 3 continents, and quilts all over our home and all over the world. I would NEVER have seen this coming! Pinch me!!! Who knew that an interest could become a passion, and a passion could become an occupation and a life?

I started in 1992, but did not really get going until 2002. I had been to the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, and there is one whole building of just quilts. I think that is what did it for me.

early mid-70s.
Working at the time at FIT in NYC; one of the textile teachers was wearing a Cathedral Window vest. Marilyn Henrion and I loved it and proceed to make quilts. She finished hers; not I
I've always considered it a miracle that I kept quilting after that start.

I bought a second hand sewing machine a few summers ago with the intent to learn how to use it. The shop included lessons so I took one. Well, I had never used a sewing machine in my life - and everyone else knew what they were doing. I had no idea you even "wound" a bobbin. I thought you just bought them that way! :roll: The lady teaching the class was not very nice to me because she had to stop to keep helping me - and I was somewhat intimidated, so I never went back to take any more lessons.....and gave up on the idea of learning to sew.

Then I joined the quilt ministry at my church where they taught me how to sew a seam, etc. on their machines. I then took out the manual I got with my sewing machine and made myself figure it out. The rest is history. I thought it was clothes that I really wanted to sew, but it turns out it was quilts. I love all the colors and the patterns. It's really artistry I think. And it has become my hobby. I love it!!

There was an old treadle sewing machine in the haymow, the kind with the long skinny bobbins. I asked my mom to come up in the haymow and clean and oil that machine so I could sew doll clothing. She did that and I sewed many happy hours, not making anything much but sweating like a trooper in the summer heat. After I married I made a quilt for each of my own babies, and then for nieces and nephews, friends, etc. Also sewing lots of clothes for my girls and western shirts for my husband and son. Needed to do something with the scraps so quilted some more. Just couldn't get enough of it and I still sew and quilt a lot. Don't do many garments any more, mostly crafty sewing and quilts. Enjoy every minute!

I am new to quilting....got a Fons and Porter CD and instruction book for a split nine-patch, and became hooked. Just 3 years ago, a freind asked me to dust off my old sewing machine and make dog coats for her cold-blooded Doberman. I kept making dog coats, and had scraps left over from fleece....in abundance. Then....made blocks into dog coats.
I had mentioned to this friend that I really wanted to do the impossible....make a quilt. The concept of making such a project was WAY beyond me. I found out that simple sewing makes beautiful quilts. I have now finished and machine stitched 10 quilts...including my avatar. I love this craft!!!!!!!!!! :lol:

I don't remember ever NOT sewing and quilting. My great-grandmother and grandmother sewed constantly, and I was totally fascinated by everything they did. I remember sitting at my great-grandmother's feet, watching her while she hand-pieced quilt squares, and then helping her quilt it on a big frame that hung from her living room ceiling. While quilting, she'd watch TV on an old console TV set that took forever to "warm up", and when she'd turn it off, a little dot would glow in the middle of the screen for several minutes afterwards. Her favorite while-quilting show was ... wrestling! :lol:

My grandmother got me a toy sewing machine that really sewed :mrgreen: on my 5th or 6th birthday, and not long afterwards, my parents bought me a real one. Fast forward 35 years or so, and here I am now. :)

My great-grandmother passed away when I was 11, and my grandmother passed away in March of this year. Now more than ever, I want to make quilts. And if someone enjoys the quilts I've made even a tenth as much as I cherish the quilts my Granny and Mammaw made, I'll be tickled pink! :)