My Journey to Quilting

It Started with a Bag of Scraps!

My sewing journey began when I was six years old. I found a bag of scraps my mom had saved from a dress she'd made. She wasn’t a prolific sewer by any means, but she did own an old Singer sewing machine and every once in awhile she would make herself something simple, like a muumuu.

For those who are not old enough to remember, a muumuu (as defined by Merriam - Webster’s Dictionary) is:

“a loose, often long dress having bright colors and patterns and adapted from the dresses originally distributed by missionaries to the native women of Hawaii.”

They were pretty shapeless and boring.

Anyway, I found her bag of scraps and decided that I was going to make myself a skirt. I asked to use her sewing machine and was told I was too young.

Did that deter me? Oh no!

I found a needle and thread, cut my pieces out, and made myself a little skirt with an elastic waistband. All sewn by hand!! I was so proud of that little skirt! Yes, it was tight and short, but I had made it all by myself!!

I don’t remember making anything else after that but as soon as I hit Grade 8 and found out sewing was going to be one of my classes I was so excited!!

It seemed to be a skill that just came naturally to me and I passed with flying colours. Sewing was always a part of my class schedule throughout the rest of my school years.

How did I end up making quilts?

I always thought I would wait until I was retired to learn how to quilt, but in fact it happened quite a bit sooner than planned.

Quilting that is, not retiring!

My kids were grown and I wasn’t interested in making clothes any longer, but I still had the desire to sew. Then, my daughter got pregnant and of course I had to make a baby quilt for my first grandchild. I was able to quilt that one myself on my domestic machine but the next quilt I made was slightly larger, almost a queen size, and there was no way I could maneuver it around in my little sewing room in order to quilt it.

I found someone to quilt it for me on their long-arm. It cost me a pretty penny, and yet I was a little disappointed with the job she did.

She must have been a fairly new long-arm quilter and I didn’t know much about long-arming at the time, so I didn’t really have anything to compare her work to.

I thought to myself "I can do better"

Which is why I ended up buying my own long-arm!

That was almost nine years ago and I haven’t looked back!

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