raptureready

My dad's mom and my mother both made quilts. In the winter sometimes we'd get snowed in for a week or more at a time. (8 people in a small house) When that happened mom would set up an assembly line operation with one person sorting, one pressing, two cutting, one sewing, another pressing. Our old farm house wasn't much once the termites got done so it was cold and drafty. We made quilts with old dresses, jeans, cordory(sp?), and tied them. She said that she had to keep us busy so that we wouldn't drive her crazy. We always kept warm. Then when I grew up, there were so many beautiful "store-bought" things that I got away from it. Only in the last couple of years have I gotten back into quilting but of course everything has changed now---rotary cutters instead of scissors, rulers instead of cereal box templates, great machines that do more than a straight stitch, books, etc.
Mom (a quilter from the hills of Kentucky) loved to hand-piece, hand-quilt her quilts and the "good" ones were done like that. The everyday, utility quilts that we used on our beds were tied. I love them all, the hand quilted, machine quilted, the tied ones, the pieced, the appliqued, the pre-printed.

BethD

I've machine sewed off and on since jr. high school but nothing fancy. The rod in my spare closet collapsed about 2 years ago because I had too much hanging from it. I had to take everything out of the closet in order to fix the problem. Lo and behold, I found my 25 year old Kenmore on the floor of the closet and thought I should bring it in to have it tuned up. It cost $89.95 to tune it up and I told the women I think I only paid about $99 for it brand new so I didn't think it was worth it. She convinced me it would cost about $300-$400 to replace my old Kenmore for a comparible one today so I went ahead and got it tuned up. When I picked it up I said to myself, now what am I going to do with it? I got the idea that I would like to make a quilt so went to Joann's the same day and bought a book on making quilts and bought the basic tools. From that point on, I've been hooked...no turning back now! Although I have to say I've upgraded the old Kenmore to a Viking and a Janome.

lfw045

I think there are bits and pieces of my story on this message board but here goes more :^)

I was influenced by my Grandmother Lawrence who always had us cutting out squares for quilts when we were little. My Mother who was a professional seamstress (worked in garment factories and sewed at home for everyone where we lived)influenced me the most. I grew up around the sewing machine peddle literally....lol! She taught my brother and me how to sew on the Singer 206 that is now mine. I made all my school clothes on that machine too. Love that machine. Anyway I took 5 years of Home Economics in high school just to get to sew. I started making quilts here and there and tied them. My mother in law was a quilter for the Cabin Creek Quilters in West Virginia and I learned a lot about quilting from her. I've had a lot of influences and I had quilted off and on for about 20 years until 3 years ago when I decided it was time to quit smoking. I found this message board. A stash was started when my Mom passed on in 2005. I knew I had to do something with all that fabric. Some still had the price slips attached! So I, to this day, am still smoke free....and still wading through all that fabric plus what I buy (can't stay away from the Asian fabrics...my hubby is half Japanese). Now if I can just get off of this site long enough to get some sewing done...hehehehe.

steelecg

I have sewed for many years, but then got away from it and did other forms of needlework. I dabbled with quilts in a day type projects, but then I retired and moved to Texas. I met some wonderful people at Happiness Is Quilting and it is now my home away from home. I have gathered a lot of fabric and finished a few things. I love the people and time I spend sewing.

barb12makeitsew

My grandfather taught me how to sew. He had a treadle machine and I would sit under it working the foot platform. From that it went to hand sewing doll clothes, buttons, etc. I then took 2 years of sewing in high school and was making wonderful clothes. Kept sewing for years. Then I gained weight and everything I made, made me feel like Todie Fields! A friend belonged to a quilt guild and suggested I join. That was the beginning of my quilting. It doesn't need to fit anything but a wall or a bed and so far they are all turning out very well.

Charlee

Such neat stories!

My mom sewed all of my clothes as I grew up on a Singer Featherweight. When I was in the 4th grade, I joined 4-H, and she taught me how to sew on that machine. I made an apron, and didn't really sew anything after that until my second son was born. Then I got a Viking, and went to town. Sewed all of my clothes, sewed my ex's shirts and shirts for my boys.
When my mother turned 60, I decided to make a friendship quilt for her...cut out 12 inch white blocks and sent them to all of her family and friends to "do their own thing" on. Got some back painted, some embroidered, some with photos...put them together with blue sashing, tied it, and slapped a binding on it. She was thrilled with it. Didn't do anything else until we moved to Montana, and I made a couple of wallhangings that I donated to a fundraiser for the local volunteer ambulance that I was a part of. Good thing no one told me that I probably shouldn't tackle a Mariner's Compass or Feathered Star right out of the gate...that's what they were, hand pieced/hand quilted and I was amazed that they sold for over $200 each at an auction! I made one more wallhanging for my mom... and then I quit quilting for awhile. A long "while". Got a divorce, he refused to let me take my machine. Got busy with life, got remarried, stayed "too busy" until recently when I asked for a sewing machine...hubby bought me my Janome last September for my birthday, and I've kept it humming ever since!

mom-6

Growing up I slept under quilts made by my grandmother &/or my mother. My mother made many of my clothes and I learned to do the same as a teenager. Loved Home Ec. in high school and majored in it in college. Was going to be a Home Ec teacher until I did my student teaching in an overcrowded school where I had 45 minutes per day in a classroom with 30 students and 8 sewing machines and only one girl in the class that gave a care about sewing.

One of my projects in high school was finishing a state flower quilt my mom had started for her hope chest. It had the designs of the flowers printed on muslin, which were to be colored with crayons, heat set by ironing between sheets of waxed paper, then embellished with embroidery stitching. My mom and her sister had finished about 1/2 - 2/3 of the flowers. I did the rest (great fun by the way), added green sashing and put it all together on the sewing machine. Then we found someone (a friend's grandmother) to do the hand quilting.

When I got married my MIL gave us a lovely hand-pieced, hand-quilted grandmother's flower garden quilt. I couldn't imagine doing all those tiny little hexagons by hand. At that point in my life, if it couldn't be done by machine I didn't want to do it and I was like many others who just couldn't see why you would take all the time to cut all those little bitty pieces out and put them all together...make clothes for everybody, you bet, but a quilt...not me! Did that once (high school project) and it was a pain to put together.

Did all kinds of crafts, mostly crocheting, knitting and counted cross stitch, with a few others thrown in for variety over the years.

A few years ago I had gotten burned out on cross-stitch and crocheting and didn't really want to do any more knitting either. My best friend, an avid crafter as well, had taken up beading, but that did not interest me. We had both talked about someday taking up quilting but that was as far as it ever got. Then another friend inherited a huge amount of fabric from her dad's stepmother and was selling it in order to have money for a project she wanted to do. Of course I couldn't pass that up and I bought a whole bunch of that fabric. Then I needed a birthday present for her daughter and decided that now was the time to make a quilt with some of that fabric as a keepsake for the little girl. So I just plunged ahead, letting the design of fabrics dictate the cutting of the pieces (a couple of them had strips of flowers with lines between) and proceeded to sit down and hand piece the blocks since my sewing machine was being cranky at the time. Got it done by a couple of weeks after her birthday. She loved it, everybody loved it...As they say, the rest is history!

Boston1954

I won a free weekend at a town in Vermont that was very close to the Shelburne Museum. There is one building in the museum that is ALL quilts. I was in there for the longest time just staring at them. Because they are so old, there were no photographs allowed, but I still remember how beautiful they all were, and marvelled at the amount of time it must have taken, because many of them were made before machines. When I came home, I thought I would like to try my hand at quilting. And the rest is history.

Lostn51

This one should be funny since I am a guy and all.......

I was restoring the house I am in right now and in the attic I found an old Singer 27 machine head. I thought Hmmm I might play with that one day when I get board......

Well one day came and I brought it down from the attic and took all of the plates off and was looking at how things worked inside of it. Later I found a treadle that was beyond rough but the irons were good so I bout it and the Singer 27 Pheasant for $15. I reveneered the cabinet and put the head I had into it put a belt on it and there I had me a sewing machine!!

I got pretty heavy into restoring treadles and collecting machines and one day I saw that I had all of these machines and thought hey why dont I make something with them.

So a year and a half ago I taught myself how to sew and made my first quilt without any instructions or help. I have been hooked ever since!!

Billy

Boston1954

Billy, That is a nice story. I like hearing how once in a while a fellow becomes interested in this lovely hobby.