I went to a quilting Bee with my mother under protest. On the way home we stopped at Hancock's awhere I bought fabric, a book a ruler, cutting board and a rotary cutter. I made a quilt for a grandchild that was on the way. That was about 13 years ago and many, many quilts later I am addicted! I always sewed. As a child I sewed for my dolls, later for my family and my home. I never thought I would have the patience to do a whole quilt....little did I know!

I also started with sewing my own clothes back in junior high school, based on need! A great aunt got me interested in quilting in the mid 70s. Has been a hobby for me replacing the sewing.

As a small child, my DGM taught me embroidery, and I kept tinkering in other things too. Made little things for my dolls, gifts for friends and family,etc. As a young mom, I bought a Singer Sonata machine, a sewing kit (when they still came with misc. tools in them!), and was into quilting. Did order a couple kits from a place back east, and the rest is sweet history! What a fun journey!!

When I was in grade school, my best friend's grandmother made quilts. Since I loved to sew, it was something I always wanted to learn to do. I never actually summoned the courage until we moved into a house in the late '80's and I wanted a quilt for our bed.

Originally because I had just been diagnosed with asthma as a 41 year old and thought it would be better if I had bed quilts that I made. Not sure if that made sense, but that was the reason.

Unfortunately, I have yet to make a bed quilt yet. However, now that I have a machine that I can FMQ with which has a very large throat space, I probably should get to making that bed quilt.:o

Both of my DGMs were into needle work. My paternal gma, crocheted and knitted and taught my 2 cousins and I how to crochet with thread. We together made a beautiful lacy tablecloth. Grandma always brought it out to set the table when any of us had dinner with her and grandpa. I was the 2nd of the dgds to get married and wanted it for my bridal table. Grandma had since passed on and we found it cut up and used for a template for a lace design on my cousin's hot rod. My father nearly killed him. My maternal was more into handi needle work sewing/mending but she made a few clothes for my cousins. I was very proud of a dress she made me on her treadle. She never let anyone use it and I could never get the hang of it. One day my sister spilled nail polish on my mother's new store bought bedspread. A lady in town was a quilter and took one of the matching shams to repair the spot. I went to pick it up and was at her house for 2 hours. I was mesmerized with the woman. She had a treadle and an electric. She told me what I needed and gave me some pieces of fabric. I eventually asked my mother if I could use her machine but she didn't have time. Didn't want me to touch it without her being there. Anyway I saved babysitting money to buy a pair of Gingher scissors. Had all of my things in a bag in the back of a closet shared by 4 girls. The one sister got a hair and "cleaned' out the closet. When she opened the bag she only saw the top layer of scraps and threw out the whole bag. I had 4 blocks pieced that I was going to show my quilting friend. I beat the crap out of my sister and I got a whooping too.It was decades before I got a new "start up kit". It's been off and on but I think I have a quilting/sewing buddy in my DH. I kdid a lot of other crafts in between but sewing was always in the back of my mind and now Ihave a sewing area. Just need some motivation now.

I didn't have a lot of money & wanted to get a nice gift for my sister's baby-to-be. Little did I realize when I started that it would have been FAR cheaper to buy a $25 gift than all the money I spent on the paper pattern, fabrics, thread, batting, marking pen, ric-rac, etc that went into that quilt. I thought it looked so-so when it was done and I didn't finish until 3 weeks after his birth, but the expression on my sister's face when she saw it was priceless. She said she had been looking at other teddy bear quilts on etsy, but her husband was not keen on letting her spend $225 on "a blanket" (GASP! Quilts are NOT blankets!!!) She was so wonderful & encouraging of my quilting and helped me be able to start making quilts to sell. I know that quilt had plenty of flaws, but I will always love and cherish the one that got me started (photo is my avatar).

I wanted a bed spread in certain colors that I couldn't find in the stores, so I decided I could just make one. That's what got me started, and I haven't stopped!

I had sewn for quite a few years when a fellow teacher introduced me to quilting -- she was a master and did most of her sewing by hand -- I was inspired and found that I could do it -- after retiring, I joined a bee with someone I had taught with and her friends and now have lots of projects, inspiration, and quilty friends and a great hobby!!

Years ago I'd sewed my own clothes. Then in 2000 I was going to have foot surgery on both feet, one at a time and would off work for up to 12 weeks. So went to JoAnne's to find me a new hobby. Picked up an embroidery machine to start with, got into a group at the store and met up with some nice ladies who were also in a quilting club. So I joined it with them. One thing led to another and that's how I started combining embroidery with quilts. Then the mother of one of the ladies wanted to check out the Viking MegaQuilter when it 1st came out, I tagged along. I ended up ordering one too. Then came PCQ robotics and so forth. Oh yes, my one and only commission quilt I had embroidery in the blocks. I took it to someone to quilt and asked her not to stitch over my embroideries..............well you know the story..........she did so I figured if that's the kind of service I'd get I'll just quilt myself so reason for getting a quilting machine. Never thought about qujilting on my DSM. So now I'm making quilts as a hobby and as gifts only.....no more commission quilts...........too much stress of goofing up on it.