How did you catch the quilting bug? Who taught you to quilt?
 

https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/smile.png I was invited to a quilt guild meeting and won the door prize...a quilting pattern! I hadn't sewn since Home Ec in high school. A friend came over and taught me how to make a simple block. She suggested I take a beginner class at the local home extension quiltmaker's group. I enrolled and the teacher taught us how to make a quilt using placemats.

Please share your story about how you learned to quilt....friend, class, or self-taught (books, u-tube)??? Include photos if you wish of your first quilt or quilt project? thank you!

PBS taught me how to quilt. Nancy, Eleanor, Fons and Porter were my breakfast buddies every Saturday morning. Bought a book of easy, and they were, baby quilts with wonderful instructions. Took me a while to find quilt shops and the rest is history! Discovered a quilting organization in my area and joined for one year. I did made a friend from that group. She was retired and a very experienced quilter. I was a substitute teacher and we would sew almost every Wednesday at her house. She taught me a few tricks I probably never would have discovered on my own. I've never taken a quilt class nor gone on a quilting retreat.

You tube and this forum are my teachers now!

When I quit work and was slightly depressed, a friend asked me what I was doing Thursday? I told her cleaning house, and she said I'll pick you up at 8:30. When she picked me up,I asked where were we going? She said Quilt Guild. After Guild, we went to the local AQS, and I found a precut I loved. It started from there. When I got home, I drug out my sewing machine from the bottom of the closet, set it up on the dining room table,

When I first got married, my DH's sister taught me many crafts. She took me to Wal-mart and bought flat bed sheets to make blocks for an appliqued quilt. (that quilt has literally disintegrated borders). She taught me counted-cross stitching and stained glass. Sadly, she recently passed.
Don't have pic of quilt, but here's a pic of trout chasing the red worm.

I took Home Ec in school and loved to sew. My mom and both grandmothers made quilts. When we moved to WV in 1990, I started watching PBS on Sunday. I loved Eleanor Burns. I went to Ames and bought fabric, books and rulers. My first quilt was a log cabin. I worked part time at a quilt store for a while in the middle 1990's. But I had to get a "real" job because our son started college. In 2008 I decided to buy a small quilt store in town and sold it in 2018.
I started quilting because I didn't know anyone here. And quilting has given me the best friends ever. In fact, I call them my West Virginia family.

I moved with my husband to Colorado. I always loved to sew and got so bored there, i took up making coats from blankets and such. Soon quilts came into view. I never looked back! I taught myself (after watching quilting shows on t.v.) and bought books too.
Now i must look things up I've forgotten!! irritating but still get the job done.

I made a lot of clothes and in the 90s incorporating quilting into wearable art became fashionable. So I just had to learn. I watched the same wonderful tv shows as Julienm1, took classes at quilt shops and through quilt guilds and read lots of books and went to quilting shows. I stopped making clothes in 2008 after my daughter's wedding dress. I found a free-er kind of creativity in quilting, different challenges that were more exciting. I make mostly art quilts, love my fabric "collection," and feel so lucky that I can quarantine and be happy by myself with my sewing machine and fabric. And, of course, coffee and the Quilting Board.

I made a baby quilt for my soon to be grandson with the help of my mother. She made me do it! I thought I would hate it but she was right and I was hooked! 18 years later I am so thankful I have such a wonderful hobby that has helped me through life changes. (Widowhood, retirement and now Covid)

I remember helping my Grandmother at a very young age with a flower garden quilt. Don't remember if I cut the pieces or if I baste them together. Very young 6 to 8 yrs In middle years I made bedspreads for economy. Didn't; really start quilting until I retired in 1997. Most challenging was the double wedding ring quilt which I then quilted with my regular machine. Mostly outlining the circles and fmq inside the centers and the football shape pieces. I really enjoy fmq.

Loving to Piece and Quilt
 

I am just beginning my quilting journey. When I retired in 2016 I thought I would relearn to sew. I sewed quite a lot in high school and my early 20's mostly because my father was a part owner of a wholesale fabric company and I could pretty much get whatever I wanted or needed. When Dad retired I realized how expensive fabric had become and I stopped sewing for myself and the children because it was just cheaper to buy from Target and I had gone back to work so time was limited. I somehow gathered quite a lot of cotton fabric in the last couple of years. I purchased some fat quarters at Joann's thinking I would make some little projects and a friend gave me her stash of cotton. In the beginning of the pandemic I was sewing masks for everyone but now that it is possible to buy high-quality masks, I have turned my attention to other projects and discovered quilting. My grandmother made applique quilts (scraps from my Dad's business) but I have found several great classes on line and quite enjoy piecing and quilting. Right now I am using my store of fabric to make blocks and then I frame them with neutral color fabric and sew into pillows. I am getting ready to take a class to make a table runner. I have purchased a better grade of fabric and am gathering the necessary supplies for the course. I am learning so much from the online classes and from this forum. Thank you to all the quilters for such interesting and informative posts.

Hubby thought I spend too much money on making soap so he signed me up with a class at Quilt In a Day, Elanore Burns. Little did he know he opened pandoras box.

I have sewed since I was 10 yrs old mostly making clothes for myself. In 2006 when my mom passed away we were going through her house and found a box of quilt squares some hand sewn some machine sewn. No one in family knew where or who the maker of the blocks was. My mom sewed but she was never a quilter. I had 2 friends at work who were quilters and with their encouragement I decided to take on project of finishing the quilt. I still haven't finished but it is on the list of to dos this year. The quilting but bit me and I haven't stopped yet.

Anna, LOL! I told my husband your story. When we got married I was doing cross stitch. One drawer of stuff. He though, hmm not bad for a hobby. Little did he know what would happen down the road. He thinks you guys should start a support group...lol

Too funny! Well my hubby is a big enabler now so it tells me he is spending plenty on his hobbies.

I pretty much learned the same way. I was a young mom & used to make my kids clothes and someone gave me a box of fabric & I stumbled on PBS & Eleanor Burns, and yes the rest is history lol-pretty much self-taught

My mom worked in a garment factory and she brought home scraps and made quilts. I took Home Ec in school and started to quilt after I signed up for a Sat morning class at the quilt store. I now have a longarm and piece tops and quilt my own.

I sewed for many years. I sewed clothes, coats, drapes, and even a boat cover. Then at some point, I just didn't bother sewing for several years. When my nephew and his wife were expecting their first baby, I decided to make a baby quilt. I used a simple "quilt in a weekend" pattern and really enjoyed making it. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed sewing, especially making a quilt. That was it, I've been hooked ever since.

My dad had a comforter that his mother bought before she died and never used. It was in what my dad called a blanket box. (A cedar chest without the cedar). I fell in love with the box and he and I refinished it. Not sure why but I painted it with enamel black and still love it. It was my "Hope Chest". He gave me the quilt inside of it and I slept under that quilt until it fell apart. But I was going to make quilts to fill up my blanket box. I wanted to hand sew my quilts. I sewed clothes and I embroidered but didn't do any quilting until after I left home. It was about 6 years when I decided to make my first quilt, just patchwork squares. And I was watching the PBS shows with Georgia Bonesteel, Quilt In a Day, and Nancy's Sewing. Luckily "Simply Quilts" came on and I had a VCR. A lady at work also wanted to learn to quilt so we sewed together at work for a few years. We didn't know about guilds , so we used our breaks and lunch times to sew or craft. We called is our group therapy. Others started to join us as time went along. Sometimes we would quilt, other times crochet, or embroider.

I started after retiring 6 years ago. The quilting shows on PBS gave me the desire to try it. I learned a lot from them but also from quilting forums like this one and u-tube. I then took a once-a-month quilt block of the month class at a quilt shop and learned even more from them. Still learning from you all. Also, what hooked me was buying EQ7 quilt design and realizing quilting was a perfect fit for my engineering and math background.

My mother sewed most of our clothes when the first 4 kids (me included) were little. By the time 5-9 came along she had no time. In 10th grad I learned real fast that clothes mattered, and I didn't have many. I never took home ec, but sewing clothes came easy with a little advice from my mom. I also love crafting, and looking at things and figuring out how to make it for pennies on the dollar. Quilting came about when I married and all our friends were having babies. Baby quilts were easy to do. I made most of my kids clothes when they were little. Once I retired, quilting really came to the forefront and I spend hours looking, watching videos and admiring, and getting inspired by posts here. I've only taken one class, and found I prefer to go it alone.

I do not remember my grandmothers sewing, or quilting, but I do know that my grandmother had a singer treadle Sewing machine. When her house sold in 1974, it "mysteriously" disappeared. Several years later, my aunt had a beautiful planter...made out of a Singer treadle machine!

I grew up with my mom sewing, most of my special occasion dresses, and lots of other things, even winter coats. She eventually had her own leather clothing business for many years.
I have been sewing for over 25 years. I bought a sewing machine at our local thrift shop for $3. I started out making clothes for my daughter, dresses mostly, all without patterns. Then I went through a hippy phase on my life and vended at several Phish shows and other shows, selling patchwork clothing. Pants and long wrap around skirts and dresses, all patchwork style. When I was no longer going to those shows I had the sewing bug, so I turned to quilts, patchwork to start, then over the years I built my skills and broadened my horizons. I've never looked back.
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Great thread!
I learned to appreciate quilts from my Mom. She took classes in the 1960s from Jean Ray Laury, who also lived in our hometown. Mom made appliqué pieces and stichery after those classes. She finally made a quilt in the early 1980s; it was log cabin quilt using Eleanor Burns Quilt in Day book. My Mom had no feeling for geometry and struggled with piecing that Log Cabin ( made with strips of torn fabric!). She hand quilted it and gifted it to my cousin as a wedding gift, but never got a thank you.

Around the same time, I took a class at a local quilt shop that called for making cardboard templates and tracing them onto fabric using a ball point pen. Never finished that project (but still have those instructions somewhere).

My next project was based on a postcard of one of Laury’s quilts. I started making it with fabric from sheets. Another project that I never finished (but still have stuffed in a closet).

I finally finished a quilt from a panel in the 1990s. It was a baby quilt and the quilting was fairly bad (who knew that there were batting’s made of something other than thick polyester or such a thing as a walking foot?). But I got better with each project by reading books, taking classes and joining a guild. When my grandmother retired, I gave her the advice and support she needed to finish and hand quilt a grandmother’s flower garden quilt she started in the early 1930’s before she married. My Mom inherited that quilt but I inherited the scraps, including pieces of her sister’s pajamas that she used in the top.

About 54 or 55 years ago my Mom taught me a bit about quilting. Mainly I learned by magazines and later quilt books. After rotary cutters,rulersand mats became popular I really started doing lots and lots of quilts.

I wrote my story and for some strange reason I could not post. It said I did not have permission, Strange?

My friend wanted to make a quilt and talked me into going with her to the first class. She had a machine but did not know how to use it. I was to be her guide in this process. Well long story short, I got hooked, she finished her quilt and I have been quilting since 1990.

I blame cable TV. We had just gotten cable and one of my favorite channels was HGTV. Alex Anderson was so inspirational and uplifting on her show Simply Quilts. I never intended to become a quilter, but I found a pattern I wanted to make for my husband, so I took the plunge. That was over 22 years ago. Since then, I have invested our retirement in quilt-related supplies. I even bought an Alex Anderson edition Bernina 153QE. I figured if she endorsed it, it must be good.

Leslie

As a kid, I loved the "Little House" books and any others featuring pioneer girls who did needlework, especially quilting. I started sewing my own clothes as a teenager and into adulthood. After I finished grad school and started working, I decided to take a class for fun and chose quilting. The multi-week class covered a lot, and I also watched Georgia Bonesteel on PBS. In those days, we made cardboard templates, traced the shapes and cut the pieces with scissors. We handquilted. It took a long time to finish a bed-sized quilt - 14 years to finish my first quilt due to having a baby, working, getting divorced, home improvement. I made one quilt a year if I was lucky. By the 1980-90s, the rotary cutter had been invented, and it gradually became OK to machine quilt. Thank goodness!

I have sewn since I was 10 but never quilted. Probably 35 years ago Eleanor Burns came to my local JoAnn's store and taught a quilt in a day class. It didn't take one day but neither did it take forever. Made a quilt and I thought it was beautiful but it wasn't quilted rather tied. I didn't know there was another step to it. She didn't teach that. I was proud of it, had it on my bed. Got a puppy which I had let sleep with me and she chewed a 24" hole in the middle of the quilt. It looked like somehow it had snowed in my bedroom, all that awful polyester batting flying around. I wasn't mad, I loved that dog and still miss her to this day. But that was it for quilting for 30 more years. Had no interest, didn't find traditional quilts all that moving or beautiful to me. (I've since learned to appreciate them and love them and make them). Not this past year, obviously, but other years my town hosts a flea-tique for unused art supplies that folks sell and it is in the yard of an art gallery. One year the display at the gallery was quilting. I was blown away by the beauty of these modern quilts. One quilt in particular just had me captivated. It was a picture of a young girl printed 4 times in 4 different colors and each panel was sewn together. I don't remember if there was a border or sashing. I must have stood at that quilt for an hour and kept asking my friend, how did they get all those stitches in the middle of that quilt? Didn't know there was something called a longarm. I just figured if this person did it, I could do it too. I figured it all out - thank goodness we have the internet. I jumped right in, bought cotton fabric, an Accuquilt even got the longarm. I'm on my second - I bought both used. Sewing was always my joy and often my way of making a living but now I quilt for joy. I have been paid to make 5 quilts but I try so hard to get out of doing these. I just don't want to. I work at a hospital now for my money, I just want to sew/quilt for pleasure and I like to give my quilts away.

I have sewn since I was 6 or 7. Made all my clothes for school. Worked as an industrial seamstress. My grandmother always had a quilt frame in her front room.I took on interest. Became a nurse and made all my uniforms. One day One of nurse friends suggested we make some quilts for oncology patients. Had a work day send made 11 log cabin quilts. The rotary cutter. Bingo. I was hooked. 6 months later bought a longarm and started a business. That was 20 years ago and still going strong. I call it my therapy.

My oldest sister was a quilter and sent me a quilt top for Christmas one year. I would watch her piece things together but couldn't figure it out. (she was 21 years older than me). So for years I wanted to learn. It wasn't until I was much older when I saw Elenore Burns on a PBS program teaching how to make an Ohio Star that I knew I could do this using a rotary cutter. So I recorded this program and many others and began to teach myself to quilt. I have yet to take any classes on quilting but that does leave me open for the future. There is always something more to learn and do. I have been quilting now for more than 30 years and there is always something new to try. I am happy to be able to enjoy this craft and my stash will out live me x3! So all this adds to the quilting bug.

My grandmother did every type of needlework but only made whole cloth tied quilts with 2" wool batts from a local mill in Appleton, WI. My mom had a sewing machine but only used it for mending and before I could learn she used it on a folding table, which collapsed under the weight and vibration and it quit working. A sixth grade friend's mom taught us both to sew one summer and we each made an "A line" skirt. I was hooked. I took every Home Economics class in Jr. High and H.S. and finally got my own machine at age 16, a Christmas present. I still have that work horse Singer that weighs a ton. I went to UConn and majored in Home Economics and though I never worked in the industry, continued to make gifts, home decorating items and clothes for myself and the family. My first applique quilt, probably 45 yrs. ago, was a wall hanging for a friend's first baby. (I was informed recently that that baby now uses it in her children's bedroom LOL) I took two beginner quilting classes, one in Laramie, WY while my DH was in grad school and one in the IL town we finally settled in to raise our family. Both involved cardboard templates and scissors and hand quilting. Never did finish those and got rid of them. I made tied quilts for the kids, like my grandma, and they were well loved. In the early 90s my mom moved into a condo with a large blank wall above the kitchen in her cathedral ceiling living room and I found the perfect pattern for a Welcome quilt. I pieced and appliqued and hand quilted the approx. 45" quilt and it now hangs in our entrance. I made a few more hand quilted items, all small: a tree skirt, wall hanging, stockings when finally I discovered quilts could be machine quilted. That discovery and that of the rotary cutter, made all the difference. When our middle son moved out after college in 2001, we converted his bedroom into a formal sewing room, instead of the dining room table. We bought a country house in 2008, but with the recession my DH continued to work until 2012, 100 miles away, and would come home on weekends. It was during this time that my quilting really took off. I finally bought a Tiara in 2017 and no longer have to depend on my friend to quilt the larger ones for me. I have two closets full of fabric and projects, enough to last me 5 more lifetimes, but continue to widdle down my supply with quilts for family members and charities. My DH has an Etsy woodshop in our full basement, so we each have our retirement hobbies, but relax together in the evenings. It is a wonderful life.

I have been around sewing my whole life My mom is a wonderful seamstress and so were both of my grandma's. One grandma started me sewing buttons on a scrap of fabric at age 3 to keep me busy so I wouldn't hit my little brother. I asked for and got fabric and a pattern for Christmas when I was in 5th grade and made a jumper to wear to school over Christmas vacation. I made most of my school clothes and my sister's school clothes thru Jr. High and high school. I made my kids clothes when they were little. I sewed Army patches on uniforms for my former husband's unit. I made my first quilt when I was 21. It was for my daughter who was going from the crib to the big girl bed, She is 47 now, and still has the quilt. I did everything wrong. I used 5/8 inch seam allowances and even used polyester blend fabrics. It was the 70's so polyester was popular. My grandma was so impressed that she gave me a subscription to the Quilter's Newsletter Magazine when it was a brand new magazine. I looked forward to those issues and read them cover to cover. I learned to quilt from magazines and TV and asking questions in quilt shops so for the quilting part, I am self taught. I am also a retired bridal seamstress so I used sewing to make a living too. It is something I love to do and now that I am retired, I get to make what I want to make. I spend a lot of time quilting.

I honestly don't know. My grandma sewed a lot. She used to make us stuffed animals, but I never remember her making a quilt. I remember the first quilt that I made I was in high school - it was not good ha ha Then when I was in my early twenties I made my first twin size by hand... then it was years before I did another one

I think I must have just seen quilts around and on TV and just really liked them

That has happened to me also. I think it's because I take too long to type. I log back in, go to the reply part again, and hit the auto-save feature, and the post is there, if you do it right away.

Elenore Burns book, "Quilt in a Day" and Shar (on a rented video from the library). After that it was templets and scissors for many years until rotary cutters and mats came out. Although my very first ones were strip quilts for my sons with boy prints and light weight denim. They were hand tied after birthing them. What fun to learn and start over with rotary cutters.

I may be the oldest 'New to quilting' person here. My grandmother was a fantastic hand quilter - she supported herself making quilts after my grandfather died. A $40 pension didn't go very far. My mother sewed clothing, with some difficulty, but no quilts. I sewed my first dresses when I was eleven - two for my grandmother and then a few things for me in high school. After marrying, I made everything the children and I wore - winter coats, suits for my son, wedding dresses, etc.
When I retired at 70 because my back couldn't take concrete floors and small chairs any longer, I was sad because I didn't know I was going to do if I couldn't teach children to read. The next Sunday, a woman at church asked me to make a prayer quilt. Sure, I can do that. Chose a pattern with small pieces and partial seams and started. I had to learn to sew exact seams, but my years of apparel and home dec sewing were helpful.
I know what I can do with the rest of my life - prayer quilts, donation quilts for fund raisers and gifts for family and friends. I've yet to do one for me and it's been 10 years.
Self taught except one 2 hour FMQ class that didn't go well.

There was always sewing in my home as i grew up. Mom made all our clothes - 3 little girls. Took Home Ec in school. Still clothes. My best friend from school was a quilter and always tried to get me interested. No go. Then in about 2013 I stumbled upon a tutorial by Jenny Doan MSQC. Something clicked and the rest is history. I love it - but i am still a way better starter than finisher!!!

No one taught me, but I had been sewing clothes and household things since I was 12 or so. When I had children, I was naturally drawn to making their bedclothes and quilts. I started with panels and quilted them, and worked up from there.

I had sewn clothes as a young mother but never thought about quilts. When I retired I took a class in stained glass and loved it, still no idea about quilts. We sold our home in CA and moved to a wonderful area in Idaho, still glass and no quilts!
Started meeting neighbors and friends in our new home and got involved in the local culture. I was invited to attend a guild meeting but said I know nothing about quilting. that night changed my life. My new friend said she would teach me. Little did I know at the time that she was one of our worst quilters! Her opinion was "qood enough for who it's for". Lucky me there were plenty willing teachers and new friends. Needless to say my glass went by the side, still have it for maybe someday. My life changed with that first guild meeting over 25 years ago.

It's interesting to read everyone's experiences and creative bug bite stories!
My grandmother was the sewist in the family, she made matchy outfits for us as kids. She was an amazing tailor, really. No job too big. She never quilted, but she did teach us how to thread the machine, and put a stitch into fabric...and how to crochet.
I never took sewing in Home Ec, I took cooking, and then in a moment of rebellion and "I won't be pinned down as a girly girl!" I took shop. Now, I wish I had learned how to sew clothes! :D Many years after H.S. I took to the concept of quilting after seeing a show, and I bought myself the machine I could afford, but never took a class. The machine was basically trash, and I didn't make much sewing progress, oddly! Finally bought myself a decent machine in the late 90's and took a beginner's class. I've been off and on with sewing ever since. I can count completed quilts with a few fingers to spare, but I have made a number of pillow tops, placemats, etc. over the years...the creative bug is in me, for sure. I absolutely love putting fabric under the machine!