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!