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.