I remember when I was about six years old that I had heard about skills that were becoming obsolete. Tattting was a dying art for instance. I remember asking my paternal grandmother what other skills might also become extinct. She told me quilting. I decided then that I would try to learn these things so that they wouldn't die out. This was around 1972 before the big revival of quilting and other crafts in the mid-seventies. Here it is thirty some years later and these skills haven't died out. Now, it is a hugh industry (not just quilting). It provided so many with so much joy and given so many a creative outlet. I personally think it has also enhanced my spatial recognition and creative thinking skills which has helped my career immensely. So what were some of the reasons you learned to quilt or craft?

need . the mother of invention.

I love the creativity combined with something useful. I love the feel of fabric.

I learned to crochet because I though m mothers work was beautiful!! I was 6.. I learned to sew and quilt because my foster mother was great at it and I wanted to do the same things she did.. I was 13

I just wanted to make a quilt. No reason, just cause. So I did, and just never stopped.

I learned to hand quilt because it has everything I like: color, fabric, fine hand and needle work and ornaments.

I have sewn for years, and wanted to do a quilt for my friends new daughter, that was 12 years ago and havent stopped. I am self taught so I really should take a class, just havent had the time.

Not really sure..One day the notion just hit me..What is so funny is I hated to sew growing up..Still can not read clothes patterns, tried to sew a few outfits in the last year and they were enough to make anyone shutter :-D ..Than it hit me..a quilt..Went looking to see what would be the easiest one for me to do and found out how to do a string quilt..I started it, and now I can not put it down..I love it...

I have sewn all of my life. My DM also, but she started quilting about 30 years ago. I have always loved quilts and decided to learn the art myself, so I told my mother that I wanted to make a quilt and she helped me when I needed it. Now we are in a quilt club together and get together for sewing days. I enjoy it, all of it, even unsewing (lol).

I have always been someone who needed a craft of some sort going on. Loved to cross stich my whole life, but had to give it up due to a shoulder issue. For months I felt lost with no outlet and finally decided to try quilting because my mil made beautiful quilts. It's been true love ever since, with a few periods of sheer frustration LOL. I'm self taught and have gotten very good at unsewing.

I retired & needed something to keep me busy and off me feet due to a foot surgery that went way wrong.

Tatting is a lost art. I wanted to learn how and bought a shuttle and book but could not master it. I needed someone to show me how. I am a visual person.

I learned in the late 70's to have an craft to do in the winter months when I lived in NH and then 2 boys came along so quilting was put on hold. I picked it back up a couple of years ago with quilter at work giving classes. It was such fun to create. Recently have been quilting in between taking care of my mother(92) and it has really helped me mentally cause I can tune everything out but quilting. I find quilting very relaxing, even the unsewing. But best of all is the delight in the faces of the people that get the quilts.

I learned to tat while I was in high school the home ec teacher let me go to an elderly lady's house for the class I then taught it to little girls in 4H and a group of ladies and one man that used to get together. I sewed all my children s cloths when they were little as my mom had mine. Decided one day to learn to quilt like a great Aunt did and quilt by hand so have been on a roll with it now. My mom made quilts but always tied them.
Learned to crochet when I was about 10 and to Knit a German lady taught me and my first project was a peach mohair sweater. I was probably 9 or 10

My mom always was sewing so of course...I wanted to do it to!!! :) Never stopped. I love it.

When my kids were little I wanted to make them quilts.

Have wanted to know how since I was very young, 5 or 6. Did not have enough courage to try til 50. lol My BBF sewed and said she would help if I bought a machine. I thought that sewing machines were the work of the devil and would NEVER work/ sew for me! It took over 2 hours to thread the machine and needle. I would not let anyone even touch my kitchen table where the machine was sitting. I was afraid they would jar it and mess it up. First time bobbin messed up the tension, took me over a week to figure out what was wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sewing machines not work of Devil but God. Cause I sure did a lot of praying! still do.

I've owned machines like that in the past. Tension that never was what it should have been. Love the one I have now and hate that it took me so long to buy one that was easier to work and fix when there was a problem.
If you own one of those, go find something easier to use. You are wasting precious creative time!!!

I designed clothes when I was younger and sewed them for sale. Never thought about quilting until one year, about 15 years ago,my son and his house mate asked for a king siz quilt to be made by me for Christmas and it was the end of October. I not only did it but started on two others by Christmas and have been at it ever since.

I've sewn off and on my entire life but it was clothes, home dec, etc. When my DD became pregnant with my first DGC, I decided I wanted to make her a quilt. Took me 2 years to get up the courage to actually start but now I've been quilting about 2 years and just love it.

Borntohandquilt, I saw the quilt you had posted and failed to comment on it...the work was just perfect, I hand quilt and have tried to make all my stitches even, however, I am not there yet...may never be, but your quilt was just breathtaking...as I remember it was a whole cloth you had marked yourself....I have wanted a wholecloth, now I dream of doing one like yours....memepeggy

I was only five when I first tried stitching which drove my mom crazy as she was sure that I would hurt myself. She only mended a little and didn't understand my obsession with fabric, needles and thread. Finally when I was nine, she said "There's all my sewing stuff, go do what you have to do" and I've been stitching ever since. It's been a wonderful thing to do when I have had to wait for appointments or at the arena, ball park or pool for hours. I hate wasting time and love to have something to show for all of those hours spent waiting.

As soon as I was able to reach the pedal and the top of the machine at the same time, my mom let me use it, but mostly I made doll clothes. (I was about 5 years old then.) The year I was 9 years old, my mom was pregnant again, and my grandmother thought it would be good for "the girls" (2 sisters) to learn to quilt (so we'd leave our mom alone, I think. :-D) So she started each of us on quilting. Mine had 1" blocks, I remember, and was never finished. But I continued to sew.
When my daughter was ready to leave for college, she wanted a quilt to take with her, so I figured it out and made one for her. Her children still use that one. And OH, what I've learned about quilting since then! I feel like it's a lifelong love, and I'm happiest when I'm piecing. Scrap quilts are my favorite.

My mother sewed but did not quilt; she gave all her "scraps" to my Aunt Edna. I loved Aunt Edna's Dutch Girl quilts... Then later a neighbor who was almost 90 said she would give me a quilt top made by her mother back in the 40's, I guess, IF I WOULD QUILT IT. Sure, I said. So, I got what I needed and started out - not knowing anything about HOW TO. I particularly like HAND QUILTING and ANTIQUE QUILTS - when I touch those quilts, I think there is a spiritual connection -- with someone else who LOVED those quilts LONG AGO.

In my family, everyone quilted/sewed. I just thought it was expected of me! Mother was left handed, so found it difficult to teach me crochet, tatting, and knitting, so Grandmother taught me. Don't "sew" much anymore, but love my quilting. Do well with crochet. Not so well with knitting, and only dabbled in tatting. Never could quite get the knack of that!

I've always been fascinated by the art. I do it because I love quilts. I come from a long line of quilters. It's in my blood.

My boys wouldn't let me make clothes for them anymore. I learned how to sew from my mom when I was about 10 or so.

I grew up watching my grandma quilt away her days. She was retired and that is literally all I ever saw her do besides cook. My mom tells me that in her later years it really upset her that none of us girls wanted to learn she was afraid the art was going to die with her generation. I am the second youngest grandchild and grandma passed away when I was 20. The next year I decided to learn. I wish I would have taken advantage of all hers years of knowledge. I have many questions now I'd like to ask her. I am proud to be "the one" to carry on her traditions. She left numerous UFO's and WIP's for me to finish LOL.

I love sewing and the quilt magazines spoke to me. My kids didn't want me making clothes for them any longer. Diane/Wyoming

I had a MIL that quilted -- handpieced and hand quilted. I always wanted to do it but couldn't handle the small paper templates. Went into a LQS one day and fell in love, learned all about rotary cutter and plastic rulers. Haven't stopped since!!!!

that is the only way i quilt is by hand all of my block are made by hand also so i stay busy all the time
louise

Absolutely, poverty meant use it up or go without. I still remember my MIL, who was the most inventive and creative woman I've known. She took a bag of donated double knit pants and reupholstering her old kitchen chairs. The result was useful, colorful, and durable. I admired her immensely. Waste Not , Want Not was her motto. She and I would haunt the white elephant sales for cotton dresses with usable fabric in them. We would then make quilts from them. Nothing went to waste. We lived on a cattle ranch and the men's work shirts would get all faded and ragged. We would cut the tails off the shirts for quilt squares because the fabric there was still good. The the rest of the shirts were utilized as oil rags or other things. Now I have all the fabric I can use and poverty is not an issue but I treasure the time she and I had and all she taught me. I am still pretty thrifty and her motto is my motto. She passed decades ago but I still miss her.

Because my grandma did and I wanted to be just like her...I still do! I lost her when I was 15 in 1975.

i started quilting by accident. i used to paint landscapes all the time but now i have 4 kids and the time it takes to set up and clean afterwards isn't possible anymore. so i decided to use my creativity to make stuffed animals and clothes because sewing takes less time and isn't as messy. well, it is but it doesn't matter too much if i don't pick it up right away. then my other half insisted i make him a blanket and ta-da i am now a quilter. (:

I wanted to use up all the fabric I had. Well, you know where that went. More fabric than when I began. But what fun I've had.

I bought a quilt for $500 about 10 yrs ago from mail order. It arrived and was sewn to itself. I thought, as a rank beginner, I can do better then that.

My first quilt is still on our bed, a King size bagged and tied Log Cabin in a Day from Eleanor Burns. It took me much longer then a day, but we still like it and I made many more, just whipping out the blocks was a breeze. I have since branched out!

I was bored and took up an invitation to participate in a group quilt.

Unfortunately for my dh I ended up investing a LOT more money into my "little hobby"!

I learned to quilt because my parents were real strict when I was young and we couldn't go anywhere except school and church so I was bored and started quilting. I am the oldest of 5 girls and the only one that quilts.

I'd sew many of my clothes and those of my children in the 70's and 80's. Then full time employment and other things got in the way. Early this fall a friend showed me some quilts she had made and I just said to myself I want to make a quilt to hang in front of the hideous door to the furnace/ac at the end of the hall! With no more thought than that I bought a pattern, material, etc.! I proceeded to complete the quilt top and used a long arm at the shop to quilt it! Phew! It now hangs over the ugly door and my hallway looks great. I have now finished the top to a quilt for my granddaughter! Soon to be quilting that and starting on quilt #3 for another granddaughter! (Oh, there were the 30+ fancy pillowcases and 3 tabletoppers I made for Xmas presents too.) Ya think I'm hooked? Even with a full time job...there seems to be time to quilt. I need to get pictures...

I have always loved fabric. Mama had a corduroy quilt that felt sooo good. ;) It was fun to look at a quilt & remember the dress the pieces came from. Now I look at my scraps from my daughter's little dresses.