I started learning to sew at about 3 years old. First I played dress designer with my Barbie Dolls. My Mom taught me to sew on a little Singer sewing machine (which back then looked like a small version of the real thing and did a chain stitch). I made clothing most of my life, and when my son was away for work one year, I taught my daughter in law to sew. She made a dress with my mentoring. After that, she went on to quilting and I stuck with fashion sewing until about five years ago. By then she was really into quilting and thought I would enjoy it. I had made a couple of art quilts (a church banner and a wall hanging for a friend), but never thought about doing mostly quilting until my DH passed away and I moved near my oldest son. My dear DIL shared her quilting with me and I started really trying my hand at it. She and I share a lot of our quilting together now. She has a long arm and is a traditional quilter, and I do the art quilt thing. It has helped me a lot to deal with the big changes in my life after my DH passed away. So I credit her (OriNebula) with my quilting interest. Of course, since then it's become a passion.

The family story about me is that I started sewing when I was about 14 months old or so. I crawled up on my paternal grandmother's treadle sewing machine and promptly ran the needle through the fore finger of my right hand. (I have the scar to show for it so I know the story is true. -- and needless to say my mother never forgave my grandmother for allowing me to do it). Then I began to sew with my maternal grandmother when I was maybe four (give or take a few months) with little embroidery projects. My poor sweet grandparents were raising me - the hyperactive, distractible, never enough to do kid from hell- (That is my view from many years down the road, they would have NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS ADMITTED THAT I WAS A CHALLENGE).

So now at almost 70, I have no idea when I first quilted. I remember making doll blankets which were probably small quilts before I went to school and jackets that were padded and lined in Home Economics (High School - does HE even exist any more?)

Then I sewed what we needed -clothes for me or the kids, pillows, blankets, throws, curtains etc. Now I do QUILTS whether we need them or not. LOL

Ann

The family story about me is that I started sewing when I was about 14 months old or so. I crawled up on my paternal grandmother's treadle sewing machine and promptly ran the needle through the fore finger of my right hand. (I have the scar to show for it so I know the story is true. -- and needless to say my mother never forgave my grandmother for allowing me to do it). Then I began to sew with my maternal grandmother when I was maybe four (give or take a few months) with little embroidery projects. My poor sweet grandparents were raising me - the hyperactive, distractible, never enough to do kid from hell- (That is my view from many years down the road, they would have NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS ADMITTED THAT I WAS A CHALLENGE).

So now at almost 70, I have no idea when I first quilted. I remember making doll blankets which were probably small quilts before I went to school and jackets that were padded and lined in Home Economics (High School - does HE even exist any more?)

Then I sewed what we needed -clothes for me or the kids, pillows, blankets, throws, curtains etc. Now I do QUILTS whether we need them or not. LOL

Ann

I was sewing from an early age and my mom helped me make many things - clothes, curtains, home dec stuff. In 1986 as a new bride I took some classes through the adult ed. to keep busy in the evenings while DH worked on his masters degree. Also, at this time I was not getting pregnant and was frustrated by this. I took flower arranging, caligraphy, cooking and finally quilting. We did use our sewing machines for piecing but also learned to piece by hand (y seams), applique and only hand quilting. Of course it was all templates and scissors. I made a 12 block sampler that I still have (pink, blue, yellow, no contrast!) I made quilts for all my friends who successfully had babies and a few years later, finally got to make every single accessory for our own baby nursery, including a quilt, which my daughter still treasures. I didn't do as much during the kids' early years, but later, as a girl scout leader, I taught the girls to sew and we made 2 lap quilts for ABC quilts. For years, it was my morning routine to have coffee with Alex and Simply Quilts. Now I teach and sew all the time. I'm pres. of my guild, it's my main hobby and creative outlet (that and knitting which my grandma taught me around age 10).

I learned how to sew in Home Economics when I was in 7th & 8th grade. I sewed a lot of clothes for my daughter when she was little and lots of clothes for her dolls. In 1990 I took a beginners quilting class at a fabric store when I lived in the Seattle area and I was hooked for life When I moved over here to the MT/ID border, there was a small quilt shop in our rural area that is still there today and that is where I met many of my dear friends.

I learned to sew from my Mom as a preteen. Sewed all my clothes back then. She started quilting in the late 70's and tried to interest me, but I was more into dating, dancing. Over the years I watched her complete some beautiful quilts including one on my profile that she gave me. Several years ago she gave me a pattern for a pillow with a kitty (y'all know I love my kitties) and we went through her stash and picked out the fabric, even gave me the pillow form for it. I started working on it and was hooked from then on. Just watching Mom didnt make me want to quilt, but when she set up a package with something that I loved, it worked! Sandi in FL

I grew up with quilts and was always interested in making them. My paternal grandmother was a prolific quilter. I've had a passion for sewing since grade school, but don't remember when I started. My mother says I used to watch her sew and she was always careful to do it right. I don't remember that either. I'm sure I made a doll quilt at some point but sewed mostly clothes until the mid 70s when I started making quilts for my new home and family. But I had many other responsibilities for the next 25 years so didn't become a prolific quilter until the year 2000.

My first experience with learning to sew (other than my mother trying to teach me - which I stubbornly refused to learn from HER!) was through Girl Scouts. One of the mothers who volunteered our troop was helping a few of us get our sewing badge. What I learned earning that badge was really the foundation of my future with quilting......

Maybe TQS could do something with the Girl Scouts of America organization to inspire some future quilters (lots of young girls/ladies have it in them..... they just don't know it yet!)

I'd never been a sewer; bluffed my way through Home Ec in HS. My Mom had a sewing machine but I was more interested in being outside with my friends.

We went on vacation to the Amish country in PA when the kids were small. One day we drove to Intercourse and I was looking at the quilts in The Old Country Store. The prices made me lightheaded but I decided I wanted to learn how to make my own.

I started looking for classes and finally found one in 1994 in Pine Bush, NY. It was part of the continuing ed program. The rest is history.

One thing, though. The wonderful teacher I had taught us the basics. We did the entire quilt by hand-no machine work at all. It was a 6 block sampler. I'm sitting here with it on me right now. I think if I hadn't started that way-slowly-I wouldn't still be quilting.

eileenkny

I saw my first episode ever of Simply Quilts -- the one where you showed that watercolor quilt of a piano, and I was HOOKED!!. I fell in love and watched that episode and every one I could after that. Luckily, I had a VCR and could program it and so I watched one hour of quilting a day for a year or so.

Ironically, I tried one watercolor quilt from a kit and did not enjoy it at all (or finish it). It is still a UFO. But I have made many quilts since then and designed some of my own, and am DEFINITELY hooked for life.

I do believe that not having TV shows on quilting is a negative insofar as bringing new quilters into the fold. No one will subscribe to TQS unless they are already hooked. The serendipity of happening upon a show like Simply Quilts won't happen today. The only TV show on quilting I know about anymore is on at 6:30 am Saturday morning (Sewing with Nancy). No young people will be up or get up for that!

BethMI

My Grandmother gave me a Double Wedding Ring quilt top, hand pieced with 1930's fabrics that she had paid a lady $25.00 to piece for her. That was in the late 1960's and the "seed" was planted. In 1976, I purchased a Lady's Circle magazine (I still have it!) and was mesmerized by the beauty of the quilts, but thought they were way beyond my ability to create. Then, in 1983, I took an evening quilt class at a community school in Las Vegas and I've never looked back!!! This is my passion and what I think of all the time!!! BTW, I hand quilted that Double Wedding Ring top and it's one of my treasures!

Visions San Diego 1990!

Both my grandmothers quilted, my mother quilts and both my sisters. My father did some embroidery and needle art. Tons of crafts as an adolescent - from macrame to candle making to crochet - I sewed my own Hang Ten-like T shirts and tank tops (Gma worked at Stretch and Sew)... but I didn't at all appreciate my family's quilts. Until Visions 1990. I appreciate my family's quilts now. Very much.

Visions 1990 was such a great mix of traditional and contemporary and art quilts. And then I found my goddesses - Margaret Miller, Harriet Hargrave, Caryl Fallert, Jinny Beyer, Joen Wolfrom, Judy Martin, Judy Mathiesen, Alex Anderson, Michael James, Arlene Stamper, Sharon Craig... And I was hooked.

This isn't a complete list of my goddesses - I hope those I left out aren't upset... These are just the ones that helped hook me early. =)

I must add Laurene Sinema to this list...

When I was a little girl I had a special quilt which was affectionately named "The Chicky Blanket" due to the chicks on the fabric it was made from. My younger sister also used it when I outgrew it. Since I had the first child, I "inherited" The Chicky Blanket and gave it to my oldest daughter. It is now so faded you can't even see the chicks. My second daughter wanted a Chicky Blanket too so mom looked on Ebay to see if the fabric was still available. I found a fitted sheet with the Chicky Blanket design and ordered it. I searched online for directions on how to make a quilt and just did it. My daughter loved her new quilt and I found a new hobby! It's been almost 5 years now and I'm lovin' every minute of it!

I didn't start until I was 60 years old and retired. I was volunteering at school and there was a colonial craft day going on with a demonstration of putting quilt blocks together using construction paper. It looked so easy that the next day I bought a new sewing machine and went to the old Ben Franklins in MD where I was living at the time and someone helped me pick out tools and a book and fabric and I started to put together a sampler. It took me a year to complete because I thought you had to finish one before you started a new one. who knew???????
I have been quilting now for 13 years. I had made clothes for my kids when they were little, 40 years ago, but stopped when I started teaching school again and had no more time for anything. Now I have a room full of fabric and a cutting table piled so high with fabric and projects that I have seen the surface for a very long time So that is my story. Judy in AZ