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.