Quiltingboard Forums

Quiltingboard Forums (https://www.quiltingboard.com/)
-   Main (https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1/)
-   -   What attracted you to quilting? (https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1/what-attracted-you-quilting-t11992.html)

sewnsewer2 10-07-2008 03:24 PM

Pretty pillow Izy!

I guess what attracted me to quilting would be that I love to sew and I was cold at the time :lol: .

No, just kidding, I wanted to make a really nice quilt for myself for my birthday so I did. I'm self taught. Now I'm hooked!!


Quilt4u 10-07-2008 03:39 PM

My Mom taught me to sew when I was 6 I was already knitting and crochet at 4 She did not know how to quilt. So when my grandson was born I wanted to make him a quilt.Never doing it I just picked up some fabric and a templat and started to quilt hexagons togeather by hand. I got hooked.

spatulagirl 10-07-2008 04:06 PM


Originally Posted by KrazyQuilter
Honestly, it was the Jennifer Chiaverini quilting novels. I read the first one where Sylvia was teaching Sarah how to hand-piece and I said to myself "I can do that!" And I did it! My great-grandmother had also taught me how to cover old blankets and tie them so I already knew how to do that.

Omigosh, yes! I actually read those first, wanted to quilt, and then when my friend was quilting, I decided to give it a try. Those books got me hooked on the 'idea', I think my friend got me hooked on the actual execution :lol: .


chairjogger 10-07-2008 04:18 PM

I was a young mom. The neighbor girl - well , same age as I - used to make things for Gattlenburg for a shop. I could help a little and eventally took my own classes. I had sewn my own clothes " Marsha Brady style" most of my high school years. Just evolved. Never knew my grandmother did this.

Thanks for asking. enjoyed the memory.

PamH 10-07-2008 04:42 PM

My grandmothers and Mom were all quilters. I always loved quilts but never thought I could make one. But after my MOM passed away I inherited alot of her fabric and some blocks she had left over so I decided to give it a try. Now I'm hooked.
My youngest daughter is now a quilter too and we are teaching her 2 girls ages 8 and 5.

pocoellie 10-07-2008 05:24 PM

I never took any kind of homemaking classes in school, I wanted to take shop, but GIRLS couldn't take shop. Anyway, no formal training for sewing, but until I got my serger, I rarely got anything finished. Once I got the serger, I really went to town. When my granddaughter was little I started making her clothes, when she started living with us, I made all her clothes, but then in 5th -7th grade we home schooled, so she didn't need school clothes, so I joined a charity quilt group, still swearing I was not going to quilt. Well, then I discovered rotary cutters, mats, rulers, etc and have been going at it since. My husband wants to know where the REAL Carmen is, because she said she would never quilt. I tell him I wouldn't be quilting if I still had to cut by scissors and cardboard templates.

Bill'sBonBon 10-07-2008 05:27 PM

MY Mother had a singer treadle machine she used to make us 3 girls school clothes. But she also sewed by hand She made us girls hand sewn skirts and tops. She taught us to sew on the treadle and to imbroidary. Especially when the Weather was bad, kept us occupided and not bickering. The three of us,I am the middle child, Knows how to use a sewing machine and to make clothes. My oldest sister learned how to make Quillows. Talked me into doing one, made 22 altogether. It was a small step to whats next. Piecing and quilting. I haven't look back since. That was 2003.
Bill'sBonBon

Marcia 10-07-2008 06:45 PM

I started sewing when I was 12 and have loved it ever since. I made all my own clothes in high school and as a young mother I made lots of my kid's clothes too. I made my first quilt, a queen size log cabin in 1981. I used cardboard templates (made from cereal boxes) and hand pieced and hand quilted it. By the time I was finished I was very proud of my quilt, but knew I would never quilt again! Ugh-what torture!!!

Then in the fall of 1999 we moved to PA and my next door neighbor was a quilter. She started a quilt group of about 10 ladies in our neighborhood and told me I could bring my X-stitch and join them. Week after week I was fascinated by the gorgeous projects they were working on. Before the year was out I owned a rotary cutter and mat, patterns and fabric and was making another quilt. In March I got a brand new sewing machine and by June (when we moved) I had a stash that filled several Rubbermaid tubs. I was in love with quilting and have never looked back!! That X-stitch project I was working on---it is still NOT finished!!!

I love making quilts for friends and family. It is how I "wrap them with a hug" when I cannot be there. Nothing says lovin' like a quilt.

ddrobins1956 10-07-2008 08:23 PM

I was raised by my grandmother, and she was a quilter. She and her many sisters all would get together, or as many as could come, and they would cut out their pieces using cardboard templates and scissors. Cutting, hand sewing, with whatever fabrics they had. Everything was used. Outgrown clothes, the backs of shirts and skirts of dresses. They bought big 25lb sacks of flour that came in a fabric bag. The inside of the bag was calico or a tiny floral. I can remember them. It doesn't seem that long ago. I would tuck myself in a corner and listen and watch, not drawing attention to myself, knowing that I would be shooed outside with the rest of the younguns, if I made a nuisance of myself. But I watched and took in what they were doing with their hands and listened to their stories. My the stories, I can still recall, such wonderful memories I have of those women. Of course, I got to an age where I couldn't be bothered with sitting with "old" women and sewing and such. But that didn't really last long. I made my first quilt for my oldest daughter, knotted it, with the help of my grandmother. She would be around for another 15yrs, and she taught me so many things. Sewing, quilting, knitting, crochet, canning and as we worked together she taught me by example what it is to be a wife, mother, gr. mother and anything about me that is good. To me quilting is honoring those women who came before me and I hope one of my six gr. daughters can take over where I leave off. Nothing would make me happier.

retrogirl02 10-07-2008 08:40 PM

I grew up around quilts and being a detailed oriented person, always loved the fact they were so reflective of their owner/creator's taste.

Mom wanted me to use a machine and I had NO interest in any of that. I thought I'd get a chance in high school but home ec classes weren't offered and I had no idea where to take any lessons. I did a little embroidery and tried a few other crafts but didn't find my niche until I had my first child. I had so much fun designing costumes (I still can't follow a pattern to save my life) for him and sewing them by hand. Mom probably thought I was nuts...she must have offered to teach me the machine about a million times until I was ready 8 years later :lol:

When I was pregnant with my second I was on bedrest and almost lost my mind....by the time my third pregnancy rolled around, I had to get a hobby. I learned the absolute basics on an old kenmore and then mom taught me to hand quilt on the cutest kitty panels ever. I completed that project and learned about the sandwich, basting, and making bias binding. I sent it to a good friend from college who was living in oregon. She had her first baby girl just before my daughter was born. I've made some toddler blankets in the mean time, but nothing major since I've been so busy being an active mom.

The women in my family have been quilters for generations and joining their ranks is an honor.


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 06:02 PM.