I've been seriously sewing and crafting since I was 12 years old. Fabric is an obsession, so quilting just became part of the process. Made my first doll quilt at age 7; first real quilt at 30. I will proudly be 65 tomorrow!

While stationed in Germany I took a hand quilting class to get the chance to meet other people. 19 years later I'm still in touch with some of them, still quilting.

When I was 13 I traveled to Ohio from Boston by bus by myself.(remember this was a safer time than this is now) to visit my aunt and uncle and the rest of my dads famly. They were making Cathedral Window Quilts for their grkids. So it started. I was put on the asembly line. First I was taught to cut the squares of muslin. then moved to sewing the squares and turning them inside out , ironing, cutting printed fabric, turning the edges and sewing the by hand. I was there for a month. I went home with a sack of sewn squares of muslin. scrounged around for old dresses for the centers. That is where it started.
The rest of my quilt was all hand sewn together, until I was 16 and got a machine, and expanded sewing and quilting. When my Uncle passed I got the first singer I sewed on when I was 11. Still use it sometimes. Thank you uncle Eddie, m miss you

i've been sewing all my life, and always was fascinated with the quilts my great aunt put on my bed when i visited. i didn't start my own quilt until i was married, though. i didn't even finish it due to busy with kids, then jobs. so when i retired early, i jumped right in.

I have always stitched so I had bags and boxes of scraps. My goal was to use them up and make something useful at the same time. I still have scraps and many years later, I am still trying to use them up. The added plus is that in quilting you don't have to spend time trying to make it "fit" as in clothing construction.

I knew how to sew but had never made a quilt top, even though I come from generations of quilters. My niece was pregnant and her child would be the first child not to receive a handmade quilt from the "Gray" side of the family, as my mother's health would not permit her to make one. My cousin guilted me into sewing it, she cut all the squares and stayed right with me to sew the top. My mother was able to teach my daughter how to hand quilt it, so three generations had a hand in it. When my niece opened the quilt and saw the label, no one could believe I had sewn it since I was not known as being domesticated. I immediately joined the local guild and mostly make comfort quilts for cancer patients. In 7 years I've made almost 200 quilts.

Sleeping under Grandma's quilts as a child. I loved the colors in them. sadly she died before I was big enough to learn from her but my dad(her son) taught me how to quilt. He had learned from her. we have a quilt he helped his mom quilt when he was little. Dad would have been ninety last year so the quilt is at least 80 yrs old. Others we have of hers are even older. My sister has the last quilt grandma made. grandma made it for her first GGC- my sister's son.
Every time I make a quilt(and reuse the scraps) I feel I'm honoring her.

I am so envious of those on this board who have been handed this tradition down through the generations. Those who have learned to quilt that way are amoung the luckiest people.

I can only imagine the stories that were told about why the older people quilted and how they got their fabrics. Until you quilt, you have no idea how hard it is to put together clothing. Imagine yourself in 1873. Your making a dress. Where are you getting the fabric from. You have to probably somewhere along the line, spin the cotton, weave it, oh my, what we take for granted today.

I remember fondly of the stories my grandparents told me of them growing up. I think it would be awesome to hear those stories while we were quilting.

My mother was a professional seamstress. She taught me to sew at the age of about 10. When she passed away, there was a quilt top amoungst her possessions that she and my dad had pieced together in 1936 (he cut the pieces while she sewed them together by hand). It is an enormous STARBURST pattern with 1930's fabrics. I thought it would be sooooo neat to have their daughter finish the quilt some 70+ years later. I took a quilting class, have made about 12 quilts, practiced hand quilting on all of them but one, and am almost good enough to tackle the project. I have 2 current quilts that need to be finished, then I am going to start on mom's. Wish me good tidings. It will take about 3 to 6 months to finish the now projects (one is quite intricate to be done by hand). I fully expect mom's quilt to take about a year to finish. Thanks for letting me ramble and remember my mother at this particular time of year.

My mother was a professional seamstress also. She worked in the garment factories and sewed for people in our community as far back as I can remember. My grandmother started me out when I was little cutting out squares for quilts. Then I graduated to making my own barbie doll clothes by hand and my Mom taught me and my brother how to use her Singer(I still use it today)and I started making my own clothes for high school. I didn't actually take up quilting until about 3 years ago when I quit smoking.....quilting helped me quit. You can't smoke and quilt at the same time.....lol!