mpspeedy

I started sewing at 7 or 8 making clothes for my doll. Learned to use a sewing machine in home economics in junior high school. My mother let me try her featherweight after I learned the basics in school. I made my summer clothes the year between the 7th and 8th grade. I made my first quilt from scraps from my garmet sewing between my junior and senior year in high school. It was just a scrap quilt made of 4 inch blocks of every kind of fabric. I handquilted it with double thread and huge knots which I didn't know to bury. My parents gave me a zig zag machine for my high school graduation present. I have not stopped sewing and quilting since. I didn't take a formal quilt class until at least ten years after I was married in 1977. I am mostly self taught. I watched shows like Simply Quilts, Georgia Bonesteel and Sewing with Nancy for years. After 40 years I have an awesome collection of quilt and sewing related books, magazines etc.

CarrieAnne

I always loved doing crafts....needlework, ect. I remember taking my allowance and walking to Ben Frankin with my friend to buy fabric and the pre stamped embrodery stuff. No one in my family is crafty either! (Except my Dad, he's a woodworker, though). When I got married, I got an awesome MIL, who sewed, quilted, canned, gardened...she taught me so much! When I was divorced I missed her way more than my Ex, LOL!

Born2Sew

I started out sewing on a Pfaff 130 that my dad had bought my grandmother. It was passed down to him after she died.
My mom didn't really sew except maybe an occasional mending job. She hates anything to do with sewing. Since my maternal grandma always wore aprons, I decided to make her aprons. I would always beg for fabric every time we went to town. Never used a pattern, just made them. I'm sure they weren't very good in the beginning but served their purpose I suppose, and taught me alot about sewing too.

I sewed in home ec, and then after I married made hubby's shirts, pants, and clothes for my kiddos and myself.
After years of sewing and not tossing scraps, I decided I needed to use them up, so I started quilting with them.

I've read a few magazines, looked at old quilts and just started doing my thing. It seemed to me the hardest part was sandwiching the layers together, trying to get them assembled without having puckers on the bottom. I bought one of those little square thingy's to use to hand quilt with. I hate hand quilting, I wish I could do better at it, but sewing by hand is just not my thing. I learned about free motion quilting and love doing that.

When I retired there were a few quilts that I wanted to do, just because. One was a crazy quilt, which I thought backing it with satin would just be a neat idea. What a pain! It was so very heavy, and the fabrics I used had alot of "stuff" on them that made free motion quilting a royal pain. I ended up having to quilt a lot of it by hand.
Someday, if I get brave I'll post a pic of it. It is beautiful, but the quilting leaves much to be desired because my spray didn't hold, and it shifted. But, it is was it is, and I dare not try to take out the stitches for fear of cutting the fabric.

Hubby decided after this that I needed a quilting frame and bought one for me. Then he saw the limitations of using a standard machine on the frame, and began trying to find a longer arm machine for me, which should arrive this week.
I still have much to learn, but am getting there. Am very excited about getting the longer arm machine.

Oklahoma Suzie

Mostly self taught, I saw some ladies quilting at a center I went to, they wanted me to join them, but I was too afraid. I just watched, then I went home and started quilting pillows. That was back in the 80's. Didn't really make a pieced top untill 2002. But I have made many since.

IrishNY

I took a four week class. It was a sampler quilt with four blocks and it was handstitched. It did give me a chance to try applique and helped me to understand the basics, such as the 1/4" rule. But I am not patient and knew I was going to be making quilts by machine, so I bought a couple of books and jumped in on my own. I find I learn best when I have to reason my way through things.

I just never stopped learning on my own and now from all you guys.

dotcomdtcm

In 1976, America celebrated the Bicentenniel. Since patchwork quilts are an authentic American art, they were in the news. I was fortunate to meet Beth Gutcheon, author of the Perfect Patchwork Primer. I invited her to speak to my art students and took a class.
I had worked in a fabric store in hs and love to sew. Beth was on tv a lot, sharing her love for quilts with the American public. Beth became a novelist, and I had 3 babies and a divorce. It took 30 years for me to get back into quilting. There are so many more resources now and it amazes me that I am buying fabric (and my groceries) online. I love to read quilting fiction and just discovered the historical notes that come with online AG doll quilt patterns!
Dotty in NYC/UWS

maryb119

I grew up around my grandmothers and my mom sewing. I can't remember not sewing but I didn't begin quilting until my oldest DD went from a crib to her "big girl" bed. I made a quilt for her. I even used 5/8 seam allowances on it. After that I learnd from TV shows and from magazines. My DD is 36 so I have been quilting a long time.

pollyjvan9

have always made garments, but when I decided I wanted to quilt I went to library and ended reading every book in the OKC at least 2 or 3 times before I finally tried a simple quilt.

Edie

I started by making a quilt for each of my grandchildren (3) for their first child. (Oh, just in case I am not here for the great grandchildren I wanted to make something from me. The grandchildren now are 17. 9 and 7 and I made the first three quilts about 10 years ago (wanted to stay ahead of myself), I cut out 13" square pieces of muslin, ironed an Aunt Martha's transfer on 15 blocks. That started my coverlets. I embroidered each block, learned how to do the sashing and border, learned how to put the top, batting and backing on, pinned the whole thing down, got myself an 18" hoop and some Tiger Tape and went to town hand quilting them with 1/4" running stitch. Then I tied them down and put on the binding. I made a total of 8 of those and then I started on picking out fabric for the quilt blocks I sewed together. Mom gave me some fabric to start out on and I found a pattern I liked "Antique Tile" and it took over a year ;but I made my Memory Quilt. Since then I have made a lot more. I love the Samplers the best - have two in the works right now - quilt for granddaughter's graduation and the Cancer Quilt (Susan G Komen Three Day Breast Cancer Walk - raffled off at the end of the walk).

I pick out my own colors. I do NOT color coordinate the samplers. I pick out the pattern, pick out the colors, pick out the fabric and away I go. People say that they know my quilts by the way I do the coloring of the blocks. Each individual block matches, but does not match the rest of the blocks in the quilt. Each block has its own story and I don't want it confused with another block.

Anyhow, after making six or seven of these quilts, I think I will try a patterned quilt. Maybe Tumbling Blocks. Edie

Edie

I started by making a quilt for each of my grandchildren (3) for their first child. (Oh, just in case I am not here for the great grandchildren I wanted to make something from me. The grandchildren now are 17. 9 and 7 and I made the first three quilts about 10 years ago (wanted to stay ahead of myself), I cut out 13" square pieces of muslin, ironed an Aunt Martha's transfer on 15 blocks. That started my coverlets. I embroidered each block, learned how to do the sashing and border, learned how to put the top, batting and backing on, pinned the whole thing down, got myself an 18" hoop and some Tiger Tape and went to town hand quilting them with 1/4" running stitch. Then I tied them down and put on the binding. I made a total of 8 of those and then I started on picking out fabric for the quilt blocks I sewed together. Mom gave me some fabric to start out on and I found a pattern I liked "Antique Tile" and it took over a year ;but I made my Memory Quilt. Since then I have made a lot more. I love the Samplers the best - have two in the works right now - quilt for granddaughter's graduation and the Cancer Quilt (Susan G Komen Three Day Breast Cancer Walk - raffled off at the end of the walk).

I pick out my own colors. I do NOT color coordinate the samplers. I pick out the pattern, pick out the colors, pick out the fabric and away I go. People say that they know my quilts by the way I do the coloring of the blocks. Each individual block matches, but does not match the rest of the blocks in the quilt. Each block has its own story and I don't want it confused with another block.

Anyhow, after making six or seven of these quilts, I think I will try a patterned quilt. Maybe Tumbling Blocks. Edie