How did you first meet and then how did you fall in love???...With Quilting, that is!!!

[ncutt]

I walked into my first quilt store about 8 or 9 or 10 years ago. I saw a Denim Log Cabin quilt and a Santa BOM quilt and that was it! Had to go buy a sewing machine to take a quilting class. Had never touched one.

And I haven\'t stopped since then!

[sewingupastorm]

I actually cannot remember when I first began needle crafts. In any case when I was pretty small my mother used to sew. I remember picking up the scraps and making stuff for my dolls. I also leaned to knit, crochet about the same time. As I grew up I learned many different needlecrafts such as embroidery, joined 4H when I was in 4th grade and began to sew all my own clothes.

There were no quilters in my family. My parents were from Europe and the women all did knitting, crewl, crochet and embroidery. Growing up in the US I loved antiques and what looks better than an antique bed with an antique quilts. I always admired quilts and saved the scraps from garmet making with plans to someday make a quilt.

Fast forward to 1984. I had just finished college and had started working. I was also newely married so being a good wife tried to make good homecooked meals and that ment much time in the grocery store. Well I would browse the magazines at the checkout and that is where I began buying Ladies Circle Patchwork Quilt Magazine and Quilters Newsletter Magazine. After buying a few copies and pouring over the wonderful quilts I decided to take the plunge.

Off to the sewing store in the mall (rememer it is 1984) I told the lady I needed cotton fabric to make a quilt. She showed me the one place where they had maybe 20 bolts of ugly cotton fabirc in those tiny calico prints. There was another shopper looking at them as well. Turns out she was a quilt teacher.................well I took her classes and learned to piece, applique and quilt all by hand.

I did alot of quiting the next 4 years all by hand. Then my marriage fell apart and I divorced and moved to WA. I was alone and single and working nights. Surrounded by beautiul scenery. I joined an outdoor club and spent all my spare time hiking and biking with that club. During that time I met guy and we became good friends and did lots of outdoor things together. Two years later we married and had two girls. When the second was about a year I quit work to be a stay at home mom. When the baby was napping I looked for something quiet to do so I picked up a quilt a small wallhaning that was almost complete that I had put down when I moved. I had finished handquilting it in a week and got the binding on. I decided to begin another and went to the LQS....................boy had things changed. Quilting had become really, really big and there were now art quilts.

When I began I swore I would never do piecing or quilting by machine. Well I sucumbed and learned both. Then I began teaching quilting classes. Because of this I had to make lap quilts for samples............I had to stuff them thru my domestic machine. This is when I first heard about longarms and I began to want on.

Fast forward again. Now we have moved to New Mexico and I am still a stay at home mom but now we live in the country. I try a few things to make money including sewing shirts for a small shop in a tourist town to the north and give up on that. I try to go back to work but realize that it will be too hard to take care of the kids and work outside the home. Finally my husband suggests I get a longarm and quilt at home. So two years ago we got a loan and purchased the machine. Now two years later I am finally beginning to have a nice customer base and a steady pace of work to keep me busy between taking care of my two girls.

I love quilting and hope someday to stop quilting for others and to only make show quilts. I love to do art quits as well and design things from scratch. At the same time I still love those old traditional antique quilts I fell in love with as a child.

[AnnHenry]

I didn’t grow up in a quilting family, but my mother sewed all my clothes and taught me to sew, embroider, and crochet. I remember only one small quilt in my childhood that my grandmother made in which she used nylon stockings instead of batting. It was wonderfully lightweight but warm. You can see for yourself if you experiment by wearing a nylon stocking on only one leg for a few minutes and compare the warmth. As a result, I have been saving nylon stockings for many years and plan to use them in a quilt one of these days.

For approximately ten years prior to July of 1989, I was obsessed with making braided wool rugs, but for several of those years, “in my head”, I had been playing with the idea of making a quilt. As my brother’s 39th birthday was approaching, I asked him whether he would like a braided rug or a quilt for his birthday, and he decided on a quilt. I told him that there were negative and positive sides to this decision. The negative side was that if I went on to make more quilts, the one he received would certainly be my least well-made, and it would be a long time before it would be his turn for another. On the positive side, in the event that this was the only quilt I ever made in my lifetime, he would have it! He opted for a quilt, choosing my first experimental quilt over a well-made rug.

I called a fabric store to sign up for a quilting class, and was told that there was a “Quilt in a Day” class starting soon teaching the Log Cabin. I was astounded at the idea of a quilt “in a day” and had no idea of what to expect, but I signed up for the class and sent in my $15.00. Before the first class meeting, however, in another fabric store I happened across Eleanor Burn’s Quilt in a Day, Log Cabin Book. I looked through it and realized that this was to be the basis for the class I had signed up for. The book was so well-written and the pattern was so simple that I saw that I could do this all by myself without even taking the class. I bought the book and made the quilt, which went together quickly and easily, without even attending the class. It was not a quilt, of course; it was a tied comforter, but real quilt or not, it was a real quilt top. Brother was very pleased with his “fluffy puffy”, and the rest, as they say, is history. I was hooked on a new obsession and started planning Log Cabin quilts for everyone I knew.

I never did get a refund for the $15.00 class I didn’t take.

I have since made 94 quilts, all but four machine-quilted on my trusty old Singer, so old that it doesn’t even sew backwards. (It amazes even me that I have no desire for a newer sewing machine.) Inasmuch as I am retiring soon and getting my new longarm, I hope to put a dent in my stack of UFO’s and make 94 more.

Eleanor Burns, you touched my life! No, I take that back: Eleanor Burns, you really stomped on my life! But in a good way. How can I ever thank you?

[quiltmonkey]

Ann, I agree with you about Eleanor Burns\'s books. They are THE BEST with clean, clear, instructions and illustrations. If a new quilter were to ask me which book to get for the first one and learn from, I would say pick one of Eleanor\'s.

Thanks for sharing your story. Thanks everyone for your stories! Each one is awesome!

[Cheryll]

My grandmother let me paw through her buttons and scraps when I was about 7. I would spend time matching all of the loose buttons in the button box and then she\'d let me sew them together. I thought I was doing important work. then for a real thrill she would let me actually cut and sew on her treadle. I thought the treadle was really neat. she had mysterious ways of shortening the leather belt on it. I have that machine in my studio today. I would make doll clothes such as tube skirts for my barbie doll.

Later on in junior high the singer Sewing machine stores offered classes in sewing. My parents took me. In high school we all took home ec and loved to sew the in skirt at the time. It was a wrap around skirt. We were so proud of our creations.Then on to later sewing for children and even a few quilts without any real knowledge. time passed and sewing kind of got left behind and a friend\'s mother was visiting and she owned a fabulous quilt store in Limon Wyoming. I saw what she was making and decided to take a class. I showed up at the fancy quilt store with my ugly Joanne\'s fabric. I got over that quick and never stopped quilting. I\'ve been obsessed since about 1999. I recently added Long Arming to my passion. I try to spend some time each year traveling to big quilt events like Road To California and MQS. I dream of going to Huston and Paducha. I tell everyone it\'s the best hobby. You can never be bored as there are always new things to learn. I love being on this chat group and learning more about quilting and all of the nice people here who not only support us in our quilting but in our family life too.

[QuiltFaerie]

When I was about 13, I was visiting my grandmother. She had a scrappy Jacob\'s Ladder. I decided I wanted to make one also. My mom had a sewing machine but I decided to make one entirely by hand. And I did. All through high school I would work on and off on the top. It was probably a couple of years out of high school when I finally finished it. My mom quilted it by hand. It was no great master piece but when you think of the time and effort that went into it, it was priceless.

I bought my first house on my own and the first year I lived there, someone broke in and that was one of the things they took. I am not even sure they knew what they had. Probably just used it to wrap up what little I had that they took. I am still hoping bad Karma is raining down on them for that!

In my 20\'s I got interested again in knitting and that passion carried me until I was layed off in 2003. I was bored without a job and got the bright idea to make another quilt but use a sewing machine again. Bought a cheap White sewing machine from Joann.com. Perfect timing right? No income coming in and I buy a sewing machine. I couldn\'t even remember how to wind a bobbin. Took a few sewing classes at Joann\'s and instead of making quilts, started making everything else. Sheers, pajamas, tops, pants, corsets, boxer shorts for a boyfriend (now ex boyfriend, sure hope he still wears those boxers), bras, purses, bags, pretty much anything that can be made on a sewing machine.

Finally, I got back to quilting. And like everything else, went completely overboard on it. Bought my Millie in July 2006 and am still going strong. I have a ton of scraps that my sister gave me and have sewing up a storm with scrap quilts.

It is interesting because I have always seemd to have an interest and passion toward thread, fabric, yarn and colors. I have tried other mediums as a creative outlet but always seem to return to this one.

Thank you for sharing all of your stories, I have really enjoyed reading about them. This is a great topic.

[osconda]

Well it was 1967 and I was about 10 years old. I went to stay with my grandmother for a week. My grandmother was working on a quilt and I am sure I was being a pest. All I remember was she took all of her quilt scraps (several large boxes full) dumped them out in the middle of the floor and put me to matching a print with a solid. That kept me plenty busy for several hours. After that she gave me a 3"square she had cut out of a paper bag and showed me how to pin it onto the fabric and cut squares. She told me I needed 5 prints and 4 solids. I was on my way to making my first 9 patch and I was in heaven. I begged and begged to be able to stay longer than a week so I could finish my quilt top. I stayed about two weeks and got it all put together. My grandmother then took it to her quilting bee and the ladies hand quilted it for me. She was so proud to tell all the ladies that her 10 year old granddaughter had pieced the top. I still have the quilt and started joining the little old ladies at the quiting bees when I went to visit. My grandmother quilted into her 90\'s. I have quilts from my Great Grand Mother, my Grand Mother, my Mother, me, and now my daughter.

[quiltlinda]

I love this topic. Everyone\'s story is unique but with the same ending. We love to quilt!!!

I didn\'t think that I quilted until my 50\'s, that\'s when the bug really took hold. I have a 9-patch top that I made when I was little on mom\'s treadle sewing machine. I\'ve haven\'t quilted it yet. I took a detour into freehand sewing machine embroidery and sewing most of my 6 kids clothes. I also journeyed into the large multi-head embroidery machines. Qulting is the most satisfying, creative thing that I\'ve ever done.

My sister and I went to a BYU sewing conference in 2002. I took a class on piecing a stack and whack, puffed quilt and a flying geese quilt. I have finished the first two. It\'s been an obsession ever since that class. I\'ve been to many retreats and seminars since then. I hope that I can meet some of you at the HMQS show in Salt Lake City, Ut. Until I bought my Millie this spring, all my quilting was done on a DSM. It was fun but this is so much better. My sweet DH is very supportive of my addiction. He\'s fascinated with the long arm machine.

Thanks to Shana for the topic, it\'s fascinating.