When I started quilting 30 years ago, I remember it was a little difficult to find 100% cotton fabric. And there were no "lines" of coordinating fabrics to create that perfectly coordinated quilt. You bought a piece of blue fabric with a tiny floral design and tried to find something, anything, that would go with it!
So I was thinking about how the quilting world has grown to such huge proportions, and I wondered what brought YOU on the quilting trail?
Is it fabric?
Or designs?
Patterns? Magazines?? The challenge of quilting??
How did you become interested in making quilts? What keeps your interest? What
challenges you? I'd like to know. As this is the week the Quilting World awaits every new line of fabric and every designer shares their latest and greatest at Quilt Market, I'd like to hear a little from you. Share a little insight with all of
us.Thank you so much for all of your comments on the It's All About the Kids blog hop. SewCalGal did such a fabulous job of arranging the blog hop and securing so many great ideas and wonderful prizes. The winner of the $25 gift certificate from the Fat Quarter Shop is OhioLori. Thanks again for everyone who visited.
Happy Quilting :-)
14 comments:
when I started to quilt - like you I found a fabric I really liked then started to wander all over the store looking for more pieces that "went with it" now it is so much easier isn't it.
LOL! I don't buy fabric because I like to quilt. I quilt because I like to buy fabric. I've always loved old quilts, because I love anything cozy. And what could be more cozy than a quilt.
I began by sewing clothing when I was ten and then saw a quilt pattern somewhere and it was off to the races. Being of vintage age I remember when there were no fabric lines, rotary cutters or even quilt shops. You really had to be dedicated to finding the right fabric,drawing the patterns on cardboard, cutting with scissors and piecing those bits of fabric. The reward was worth it and I've been quilting for 40+ years.
I'd started cross-stitching because a friend at work was doing needlepoint and I asked for a kit for Christmas and the one my husband bought me was counted cross-stitch...which led me to the Dian Phalen pictures of quilts draped on barns and outside buildings...which led me to the quilts!
I started because my daughter (who was 7 at the time) do not like blankets but love quilts. Back in the day the only way you could get a quilt is if someone made you one or you made one yourself. Since I'd been sewing garments for 15-20 years, I figured how hard could it be to make a quilt? Back in the day I had to drive over an hour to a "real" quilt shop, and I had to search the store to find fabrics that went together well ... or as well as I could get them. Ha! I still prefer to search out for fabrics I like rather than creating a quilt from a single line of fabrics, and I still quilt by hand. I do use rotary cutters and rulers and a quarter inch presser foot ... none of which were available back in the day. ;-)
In high school I wanted to try crewel embroidery, and made 12 blocks (zodiac signs) enlarged from an old Workbasket embroidery pattern of Grandma's. When I was finished I didn't know what to do with them. So I added alternate solid blocks, made them into a quilt and yarn tied it. My first quilt. I've been quilting ever since.
My best friend, who is a quilter, asked me along on a quilt shop hop for fun. At each shop you got a pattern and some fabric to make one 8.5" square. That was all it took. I fell in love. I think what I love is that it is like a fabric jigsaw puzzle. Piecing is my favourite part. Of note another friend who was also along also became an avid quilter (10 years ago now), and I have just in the past 2 months hooked my coworker, which I am just tickled about.
My great-grandmother made quilts. I've always loved quilts. I started one, way back in college (no pattern, just lots of squares). That project got lost somewhere. I took a class at church, when I got the chance.
I started quilting in 1976 with the bicentennial resurgence of quilting then. I saw a Honey Bee pillow pattern in a magazine and made it, It was cut out of "calico" fabrics and hand quilted. That was to very beginning of my quilting adventure.
Congrats Ohio Lori! How exciting for her.
What inspires me? My girlfriends for sure.
Smiles,
Kelly
I played under the quilt that all my great aunts and adult cousins were quilting. I was about five when I realized it was as much fun watching the women moving their needles in and out of the quilt and making something look so cool as it was to crawl around under our "tent." A few of my cousins went on with the tradition and I made a baby quilt or two, but my true love of quilting began 15 years ago when I discovered FMQ. Now I am hooked!
Congrats to your winner!!! I started quilting all because of a quilt I saw in a magazine - can't remember the magazine, it's long gone, but I showed it to my friend who sews and she told me the VERY basics of how to construct it. We went shopping and picked out fabric, I went home and cut the cardboard templates and commenced hand sewing [no sewing machine!]. Hand quilted, with ribbon to cover where I'd marked my seam lines to stitch with INK, I finally finished it 20 years later - and after sleeping under it the first night, I was hooked. I no longer use cardboard templates, and no longer stitch seams by hand, but hand quilting remains one of my most favorite activities! And the quilt remains my most favorite! I still sleep under it every night.
In 1969, I decided to take a home ec course in high school. My teacher showed me how to make a crazy quilt square and I was hooked! I also learned how to make a puff quilt! My first "cotton" fabrics were purchased at Woolco (a branch of Woolworths). Happy days!
Congrats to Lori! I think for me, it would be a combination of colors and design!
That Quilter mag has my Scattered Leaves quilt on the cover! :) Funny - because that's the only copy of magazine with my work that I didn't have --- until last night. I found a copy online.
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