How did you catch the quilting bug? Who taught you to quilt?
#1
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 3,711
![Default](/images/icons/icon1.gif)
![](https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/smile.png)
Please share your story about how you learned to quilt....friend, class, or self-taught (books, u-tube)??? Include photos if you wish of your first quilt or quilt project? thank you!
#2
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Central NM
Posts: 1,594
![Default](/images/icons/icon1.gif)
PBS taught me how to quilt. Nancy, Eleanor, Fons and Porter were my breakfast buddies every Saturday morning. Bought a book of easy, and they were, baby quilts with wonderful instructions. Took me a while to find quilt shops and the rest is history! Discovered a quilting organization in my area and joined for one year. I did made a friend from that group. She was retired and a very experienced quilter. I was a substitute teacher and we would sew almost every Wednesday at her house. She taught me a few tricks I probably never would have discovered on my own. I've never taken a quilt class nor gone on a quilting retreat.
You tube and this forum are my teachers now!
You tube and this forum are my teachers now!
#3
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Florida
Posts: 5,946
![Default](/images/icons/icon1.gif)
When I quit work and was slightly depressed, a friend asked me what I was doing Thursday? I told her cleaning house, and she said I'll pick you up at 8:30. When she picked me up,I asked where were we going? She said Quilt Guild. After Guild, we went to the local AQS, and I found a precut I loved. It started from there. When I got home, I drug out my sewing machine from the bottom of the closet, set it up on the dining room table,
#4
![Default](/images/icons/icon1.gif)
When I first got married, my DH's sister taught me many crafts. She took me to Wal-mart and bought flat bed sheets to make blocks for an appliqued quilt. (that quilt has literally disintegrated borders). She taught me counted-cross stitching and stained glass. Sadly, she recently passed.
Don't have pic of quilt, but here's a pic of trout chasing the red worm.
Don't have pic of quilt, but here's a pic of trout chasing the red worm.
#5
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: West Virginia
Posts: 749
![Default](/images/icons/icon1.gif)
I took Home Ec in school and loved to sew. My mom and both grandmothers made quilts. When we moved to WV in 1990, I started watching PBS on Sunday. I loved Eleanor Burns. I went to Ames and bought fabric, books and rulers. My first quilt was a log cabin. I worked part time at a quilt store for a while in the middle 1990's. But I had to get a "real" job because our son started college. In 2008 I decided to buy a small quilt store in town and sold it in 2018.
I started quilting because I didn't know anyone here. And quilting has given me the best friends ever. In fact, I call them my West Virginia family.
I started quilting because I didn't know anyone here. And quilting has given me the best friends ever. In fact, I call them my West Virginia family.
#6
![Default](/images/icons/icon1.gif)
I moved with my husband to Colorado. I always loved to sew and got so bored there, i took up making coats from blankets and such. Soon quilts came into view. I never looked back! I taught myself (after watching quilting shows on t.v.) and bought books too.
Now i must look things up I've forgotten!! irritating but still get the job done.
Now i must look things up I've forgotten!! irritating but still get the job done.
#7
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Southern California
Posts: 1,046
![Default](/images/icons/icon1.gif)
I made a lot of clothes and in the 90s incorporating quilting into wearable art became fashionable. So I just had to learn. I watched the same wonderful tv shows as Julienm1, took classes at quilt shops and through quilt guilds and read lots of books and went to quilting shows. I stopped making clothes in 2008 after my daughter's wedding dress. I found a free-er kind of creativity in quilting, different challenges that were more exciting. I make mostly art quilts, love my fabric "collection," and feel so lucky that I can quarantine and be happy by myself with my sewing machine and fabric. And, of course, coffee and the Quilting Board.
#8
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Yorkville, IL
Posts: 7,639
![Default](/images/icons/icon1.gif)
I made a baby quilt for my soon to be grandson with the help of my mother. She made me do it! I thought I would hate it but she was right and I was hooked! 18 years later I am so thankful I have such a wonderful hobby that has helped me through life changes. (Widowhood, retirement and now Covid)
#9
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 682
![Default](/images/icons/icon1.gif)
I remember helping my Grandmother at a very young age with a flower garden quilt. Don't remember if I cut the pieces or if I baste them together. Very young 6 to 8 yrs In middle years I made bedspreads for economy. Didn't; really start quilting until I retired in 1997. Most challenging was the double wedding ring quilt which I then quilted with my regular machine. Mostly outlining the circles and fmq inside the centers and the football shape pieces. I really enjoy fmq.
#10
Member
Join Date: Dec 2020
Location: Kansas City Metro
Posts: 1
![Smile](/images/icons/icon7.gif)
I am just beginning my quilting journey. When I retired in 2016 I thought I would relearn to sew. I sewed quite a lot in high school and my early 20's mostly because my father was a part owner of a wholesale fabric company and I could pretty much get whatever I wanted or needed. When Dad retired I realized how expensive fabric had become and I stopped sewing for myself and the children because it was just cheaper to buy from Target and I had gone back to work so time was limited. I somehow gathered quite a lot of cotton fabric in the last couple of years. I purchased some fat quarters at Joann's thinking I would make some little projects and a friend gave me her stash of cotton. In the beginning of the pandemic I was sewing masks for everyone but now that it is possible to buy high-quality masks, I have turned my attention to other projects and discovered quilting. My grandmother made applique quilts (scraps from my Dad's business) but I have found several great classes on line and quite enjoy piecing and quilting. Right now I am using my store of fabric to make blocks and then I frame them with neutral color fabric and sew into pillows. I am getting ready to take a class to make a table runner. I have purchased a better grade of fabric and am gathering the necessary supplies for the course. I am learning so much from the online classes and from this forum. Thank you to all the quilters for such interesting and informative posts.