Two good friends often shared their projects when we got together. I thought it was something I would enjoy, since I enjoyed needlework. My grandfather was a tailor, and my mother sewed garments for our family, though she never quilted, so I guess it was in my blood. Four years ago when my husband was diagnosed with cancer, my friends encouraged me to take a beginner quilting class at our local quilt shop, Acme Country Fabrics. This helped me pass the time while my husband was getting treatments. I bought my first Bernina from the same shop less than a year later and upgraded two years ago. Quilting has become a passion I am so grateful to have found. I am recently retired and enjoy meeting other quilters and having the time to learn more.

When I was around the age of seven (mid 1970's) my mom and her friend decided to make quilts for their daughters. She cut it out with scissors. :shock: an machine pieced it. My dad set up a quilting frame in the living room and she let me help her quilt it!
Fastforward to the 1990's and my uncle's partner was a quilter and trying to get my interested and my sister-in-law was expecting her first. I bought the fabric and "designed" my first quilt. a simple 3 patch using what I later learned was Debbie Mumm fabric.
A pause of a couple of years and a beginners sampler class and as they say, the rest is history.
(there is actually a bit more to it than that but I don't want to bore everyone!

Jean in Windsor, ON

I had done garment sewing since I was a teenager but was never interested in quilting. In the late 1990's, I was looking for something to do so bought Alex's book, Start Quilting, and some fabric for a Rail Fence quilt. I made the quilt using instructions from her book and quilted it on my Viking machine. Since then I've added a couple more machines and mid-arm quilting machine. I've made more quilts than I can count, have more fabric than I can use in a lifetime and am always adding more...but it's so much fun!!!
Fi

The "story" in my family is that I started using the sewing machine when I was about 15 mo. old when I crawled up on my paternal grandmother's treadle machine and ran a needle through my right forefinger. (My mother never forgave my grandmother for allowing that to happen--grudges in my family can last a long time!!!!!!!!)

I sewed either by hand or machine from the time I was about five and did a lot of different things (that is more years than I care to mention but put a 6 and a 5 together and you will get it) . I have told the stories of my first "quilts" on my blog but needless to say I didn't always know what I was doing.

About ten years ago, I took a class in our seniors RV Park and did a sampler quilt. The rest is history (most of which is in my TQS blog archives if anyone really cares) The journey has been wonderful and I try to grow and change each day. Ann

My mom taught my sister and I to sew when we were about 7 and 9 or so, by showing us how to safely use the machine, providing us with fabric and letting us fly. She didn't criticize, she didn't nitpick - she was there with suggestions if we had problems or questions. (She made most of our clothes, and many of her own at that time in the late 50's.) Both my sister and I continued sewing throughout our lives, and she has done it professionally. I made my wedding and bridesmaids dresses, and most of my kids' clothes when they were little. My sister actually was the first to try quilting, but several years ago when her life got too chaotic in the middle of a quilt she was making for me, she gave me the partially completed blocks and wished me luck. I still do sewing of all kinds.

I grew up around quilters-- my mom, my grandmothers, the ladies in our church women's group. I was always encouraged to put stitches in the quilt that happened to be in the frame. As a teenager and as a young adult I made several quilts with the help of my mom. Fastforward to 2005---my children were growing up and moving away from home. I was looking for something creative I could be passionate about and quilting is it. My mom and dad gave me a kit for a table runner and my sister showed me how to rotary cut. I was hooked. I took a beginner quilt class at our local quilt shop and I have been quilting since. I enjoy learning new things and improving my skills. I am a traditionalist at heart but have tried other things. I am so thankful for TQS and for quilting. I also love the connection I feel with other women in my family when I quilt (when I hand quilt I use a frame that my grandfather made for my grandmother more than 70 years ago).

Quilting feels innate. I don't remember it not being something I loved. It called me in and I answered. I don't believe my skills to be very good, but quilting will always be part of my life.

I went to my first quilting class at a community school in the early 70's. It was probably to have some me time away from a 3 and 4 year old. That was so much fun I cut out Winnie the Pooh characters from a coloring book and designed a baby quilt for my best friend. Since I thought it was easy, I tried a Lemoyne Star for my king sized bed. I ended up making the stars and appliquing them on a sheet and tying it. (about 4 years later) I didn't do anything else for about 12 years or so and my son's fiance wanted a double wedding ring quilt for their wedding. Still not knowing any better, I said ok. It took them one breakup and about a year and a half to get married but I got that quilt done! I finished the last stitch the day of the wedding and got it washed just in time. I'm still quilting, and sill biting off more than I can chew very often which drives my DH crazy. But I'm happy and quilting along slowly but surely. Charlotte

At my Nan's knee when I was 4. She had me doing anything crafty, especially with needles.

My Mum still has the hexagon pincushion I first made back then too, must have been 1970 and a bit of time on to finish it. Probably no good to use and full of dead needles I should think!

I was thinking of my Nan the other day as I placed my umpteenth instant internet order. She lived in Devon and we lived in Dorset, 100 miles away, and she used to have to wait for the two or three times a year she visited us to come to the only decent knitting and stitching shop in the south. Oh to have that patience!!!!

I lived in Shelburne, VT during the early seventies. My friends were all weaving on these huge looms to make lovely placemats. I couldn't see that. The Shelburne Museum, couple of miles down the road, advertised classes they were offering. I signed up for the quilting, figuring I'd finally use the Sears sewing machine I had. Arrived at first class only to find that the crafts were all being taught as they had been done before Ott Lights - or ANY electricity!! So I began quilting with a fabulous hand sewing/quilting background, and it has served me well. My first quilt is totally hand done, a hexagon, I don't know, tablecloth?? It's done in rainbow rings, and I thought I was so progressive having found the ditsy calicoes in all the colors! Then I met Beth and Jeff Gutcheon, and they literally rocked my world. So ahead of their time....

In 1960 I was 14 and my Aunt asked me to go to buy fabric for a quilt she saw in a Magazine. I helped her pick out the fabrics. She made the quilt and I watched. She gave me the quilt before she died and I still have it. In the ninety's some time, one of the quilt mags published a reprinting of that same quilt pattern. I have it somewhere in my stash but can't find it now. Does anyone else remember what mag it was in? It was a strip quilt. The pieces were cut 2 1/2" wide and cut at different lengths. You put them in a bag and pulled them out at random, sewed them in long strips the length you wanted and sewed the long strips together. She hand quilted it on a frame in her living room. I still remember that.
I have always been a seamstress so sewing a quilt came naturally. I made my own first quilt for my first baby born in 1968. I fussy cut raggety Ann and Andys from fabric and pieced a 4 patch with red, white and blue fabrics. My daughter in law has it in her treasure box. I haven't stoped quilting and sewing since.

I don’t have a family history of quilting. I became interested quilting by videotaping a quilting show on cable that followed the Carol Duvall Show. The show was Simply Quilts and Alex Anderson was the host. THAT is how I became interested in quilting although I had NO skills (I didn’t even know how to use a sewing machine.)

My coworker, Melony, took me to Sears and I purchased a basic sewing machine that was similar to hers. She showed me how thread the machine, wind bobbins, etc. I watched her make items fearlessly and I tried, but I really needed more traditional instruction.

I took a “beginner level” class at a Loveland quilt shop, but it was not basic enough for me! Thanks to Charlotte Allum at the Fig Leaf [quilt shop in Fort Collins], I began to understand the basics. That was the beginning.

Having babies! I was into cross stitch, and made my first son a cross stitch welcome gift. Then with him running around, didn't really have the time or energy to do that for #2 so made him a little tied comforter. I knew I liked hand work, so looked into hand quilting, found I had to make something to do that, so made baby #3 a baby quilt! That was 21 years ago, and I haven't looked back.
Joan

When I got married my new MIL gave us a beautiful Double Wedding Ring quilt...hand pieced and hand quilted. It is the first real quilt I had ever seen up close. She spoke about her group of quilting friends in her little Iowa town who quilted twice a week together since she was a teenager (she was in her 60's in 1980). She consented to show me how and what she did to create our lovely quilt. I made a set of placemats for our first Christmas together (we use them every year). By then I was hooked quite completely and went on to make a baby quilt for a friend. The fabric, books and information collecting began and hasn't stopped.
Since receiving that first quilt from my DH's mother she has made many more and given them to us and our daughters. She still quilts today in the assisted living home that she lives in now...at 94 she can still piece, but mostly spends her time in the community quilting room just down the hall from her apartment. She says about 8 women meet and stitch together weekly. How amazing is this...to think we all have sooooo many years ahead to pursue out passion for quilting!