I started seriously quilting in the 1980’s. My best friend from High School, Dawn (check out her website), is a quilter and I would buy her fabric and notions for Christmas and birthdays. After a while all the pretty colors started drawing me in.
I had a false start though. In 1979 while I was still in college, I gathered up a bunch of scrap fabric from my Mom’s stash, she used to sew all of our clothes and never threw out the left over pieces. I made little templates out of cardboard and sandpaper. I cut out lots and lots of little squares, but I never got around to actually sewing them together. After I graduated, I gave the bag of squares to Dawn thinking I would go on with my life. Happily, that wasn’t to be. Dawn took all those scrap blocks and made me a beautiful quilt, which I still have. It was almost like a memory quilt because I could identify which fabrics came from which outfit she made for my sister, brother or me. The seed was planted.
I started picking up quilt magazines. Just to look, you know. I don’t remember my first quilt project, but when my daughter was born, I took a few years off to be a stay at home mom. Aside from sewing baby clothes I took to quilting as a way to stay sane. I made a queen size quilt using an old Singer sewing machine my parents gave me when I went away to college. Once that was done, I was making quilts for all my friends and relatives whether they wanted them or not. I couldn’t help myself, I would see a technique or pattern in a quilt magazine or on TV and off I would go to the fabric store. Some unsuspecting person would then get a new lap or baby quilt.
When I went back to work, my quilting slowed down, but never stopped. Then in 2010 my husband and I moved to Clifton Park, NY a little north of Albany. I didn’t know anybody at first, but the wife of someone my husband knew was a quilter. We became friends and she suggested that we check out the local quilt guild (QUILTS Schenectady). WOW!!! Why had I never done this before? Wonderful women with great ideas and beautiful work. I became energized and started quilting in earnest again.
In April of 2017 I retired from work, moved back to PA and devoted myself to serious quilting and sharing this passion which has given me so much joy. I hope that you will find something on this website which will inform and inspire you.
Brita
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I took the zoom disappearing nine patch and loved it. Looking forward to using the things I learned.