How did you start out quilting?

[Nancy M.]

I started sewing on my DGM treadle sewing machine when I would stay with her for a few days each summer; my DM said I could not use her electric Singer until I was 10, so the time spent on the treadle was extra-special. I went on to make doll clothes, and then my own clothes for many years, taking Home Ec in HS and 10 years of 4-H, up to and including tailoring (was 1st IL state runner-up with a Pendleton wool coat as a HS senior in the old Make it Yourself with Wool contest). I continued to sew for myself and some for our three kids, as well as home dec, with knitting, crocheting, and then counted cross-stitch in my “free” time. My DM took up quilting the last few years of her life, and I was mildly interested, but regretfully did not do anything about it until a couple years after she passed away, when my DD and I took our first quilting class together. I was hooked! and now she is mildly interested…but much younger than when I was at that stage. I originally thought quilting would be a retirement activity, but am really glad I got into it earlier…retiring is still several years away, and I’m loving soaking up ideas, building my stash and library, and doing what quilting I can in my free time. Nancy

[Pat S.]

What FABULOUS stories.. I love to hear how each of you started to quilt!

I only saw one utility quilt prior to quilting. If you see my lecture I have it in the lecture!

Sewing clothing since I was in about 9th grade... but no quilting until 15 yrs ago.

My friend told me I HAD to learn... and it was TRUE LOVE from then on out!

[Annis C.]

I too enjoyed reading about how everyone started quilting. Like many of you, sewing clothing came before quilting, but I was destined to be a quilter. My paternal grandmother was a prolific quilter and we grew up with quilts on our beds but didn't know at the time that they should be treasured so they became pretty worn. Many of my relatives on both sides of the family were also quilters. My maternal grandmother who was also a quilter in her younger years, before my memory starts, loaned me the money for my first sewing machine when I was 18. I still have the cabinet but sold the machine to a neighbor when the wonderful computer machines came out many years ago.

I don't remember how old I was when I started sewing or when I made my first quilt but my mother says I watched her sew and she was always careful to do it right. I do remember sewing Barbie doll clothes by hand in grade school and sewing on the sewing machine for the first time at age 12 after I got brave enough to ask my mother if I could use it.

I sewed mostly clothes for 10 years until getting married and purchasing a home, then I sewed mostly home decorating items and started making quilts at that time. I redecorated my kid's bedrooms about every year for awhile and handed down the old quilts to relatives. I didn't just make quilts, I made pillows and curtains etc. to match and they were handed down too. I also crocheted more afghans than I made quilts and was called the afghan lady at the local yarn shop for awhile.

Then after my youngest started school I started making smaller gift items to sell hoping to make a little profit. There wasn't much time for quilting for the next decade. By 1999 the craft business was no longer working for me as I had to spend too much time helping with the bookkeeping for the family business so I closed my last booth at the craft mall. Then I spent the next 6 months walking the aisles of the craft stores wondering what I should do next. I needed a creative outlet to survive.

On July 31, 2000 (I remember the date because it's my oldest brother's b-day) I had an idea for a quilt that I wanted to make, which led to another and another and so on. Soon I too became a prolific quilter.