My mom has been a clothes sewer and quilter for many years; she started teaching me when I was pretty young. I mostly sewed clothes until 5 or 6 years ago when I really got bitten by the quilting bug.

Mom plays the piano, too...I've played clarinet for 35+ years, and have played in the handbell choir at church for 20+ years. Dad was a civil engineer and could draw...my brother & sister & I all have that neat-freak trait and sis & bro can draw.

I do most kinds of needlework, too - crochet, knit, cross stitch, etc.

Donna

My Great Aunt Julia was a quilter - all made from scraps of fabric she or my mother had used in making clothes. When I was young I took sewing classes and expected to follow in the footsteps of these women and make my own clothes but I hated it and was never good at it. But I did learn to love fabric and to be comfortable with a sewing machine. It was always about the fabric for me. I think one of the things I love so much about quilting is that I can use several different colors and prints in the same project!

I didn't really start to quilt until I was well into my 30's. I picked up a magazine that showed a collection of Jinny Beyer fabrics and I was instantly hooked. Found the closest quilt shop and bought fabric. Put a wall quilt together in a weekend and haven't stopped since then. It was like finding a really terrible vice and becoming addicted the first time you try it: fabric is my drug of choice. At the time I was traveling for my job almost constantly so quilting could only happen once in a while; weekends were too busy with other things. But I still found time for a couple quilts a year. Then 4 years ago I changed jobs and don't travel at all. My quilting quota skyrocketed and I'm loving every minute of it.

Before? I think most of my creativity went into my job and my garden. As quilting has taken over my brain, the garden has become less and less important to me although I still love it.

My family? An interesting mix of left brain and right brain people. I, of course, am the most creative AND the most logical. It amazes me that any of them would even consider questioning my judgement or arguing with me about anything ;~))

Other creative outlets? gardening, beading, photography, developing training programs and publications for my job. I can turn almost anything into a craft project! But if I had to give up everything else and just keep one creative outlet, it would be quilting.

Kate

Well, no one in my family was a quilter nor did sewing so I'm not really sure. Before a little over a year ago I never even saw a sewing machine up close!! I remember in college a girl 2 doors down whipping up skirts and bags and thinking i would love to try that. Fast forward 15 years and I finally got a sewing machine!! My first trip to a LQS for fabric and I was beyond hooked. I was in a class the next month and joined the local guild the month after that!! Its been the greatest thing I have ever done (sans my daughter) and I'm so delighted to finally have found something I love soooo much.

I am not creative in any other crafty type areas but have been an avid gardener since my teens. For the last 15 years my email address has the word creations in it and people always asked what I created. Before quilting it was a boring answer, I created financial data bases :( Now I can say I create beautiful works of art from my heart!!

My mom and her mom were sewers. Grandma bought me my first machine when I was in 4th grade. I sewed clothing, but did so less and less since the patterns never fit my refrigerator figure - I wish I'd had classes on tailoring! When my DD was a baby I took my one and only quilting class and loved that it was straight seams! I was hooked. Love the feel of fabric - I'm very much a tactile person (sometimes I find that I've been carrying around something like the plastic ring off of a milk carton for a couple hours, just playing with it in my fingers O_O) I always loved to doodle, color, cut & paste, but was not a good art student! I find that when I walk through a fabric store, I will be trailing my finger tips across the bolts of fabric without realizing it. I had a teacher in H.S. who was a gifted artist and costumer - I enjoyed working with her doing the costumes for the plays.

I didn't start quilting until I was in my 30's. My mother didn't sew but did embroidery, my grandmother was a seamstress by trade. But I didn't take interest in any of it growing up. (Wish I had paid more attention now.) My creative interests began as a child with drawing, and later painting. I also was into stained glass for awhile until I got lead poisoning from the solder. It was also very expensive and it's not an easy or safe art to do in limited spaces, especially in the house. But I began to notice quilts and admired all the different patterns and fabrics and decided to try it. I've been hooked since and I am in my mid-fifties. It's not my only pastime but I've usually got a quilting project going all the time. It's just more difficult for me to do a lot of it in the Spring and Summer, where gardening demands a lot of my time, another one of my favorite hobbies.

My mother couldn't thread a needle. I started sewing clothes when I was 18 -- bought my own sewing machine and self taught with help from a friend now and then. Sewed for my kids and then grandkids and then started quilting about 20 years or so ago and just kept going from there, reading books and magazines and being inspired on here. It's on on-going learning experience.

I've always been creative and I learned to sew at quite a young age, so when I had to give up painting due to a sensitivity to the fumes, quilting was a logical place to go. I also knit and garden a bit. Actually, these days, I'm more excited about knitting--not really sure why that is.

I think I've always had creative outlets:

music began in the 4th grade playing the flute, then choir at church, chorus and orchestra in high school, marching band, etc. I had a great aunt that would do crafts with me when I visited my grandparents - metal work in copper, embroidery and painting

in jr. high school I used to spend time drawing house plans (got that from my dad I think), and I took my first sewing classes, from then on I made a lot of my own clothes

in college I majored in Home Economics and took tailoring and sewed up a storm when I went home on breaks from school

as a young wife I made clothes for my little boys, learned to knit, crochet, cross stitch and tole paint; also started my love of cooking

began to quilt in the late '70s started but stopped when things got bad at home; started quilting again in the mid '80s and never stopped; began weaving this winter!

I think I would be a very unhappy person without several creative outlets. My creativity brings me joy! It's also brought me new horizons, new places, new friends, and a little money.

Teresa

I have been sewing most of my adult life, beginning with a HS sewing class. I sewed because I liked it, because I could and because of necessity. I made 75% of my childrens cloths, I tought my children to sew,4Hers and a few adults who wanted to learn the skill but I didn't begin to quilt until I was 45--1978--when my children had left the nest and I needed to find a new outlet for my sewing machine skills.
I still would make childrens cloths if I had an reason but few people enjoy hand mades these days.
I have always been creative:sketching, sewing, knitting, crocheting, tatting(needle), gardenting,embroidery, crafting but a few years ago I decided that there weren't that many years remaining and decided to limit my other acctivities and concentrate on my quilting. I still love heirloom sewing but only venture there if the need presents its self. I have a sweather that I get out every once in a while, an irish knit, that I have been working over the years but will never finish. The quilts and fabric are my current love and main outlet for my creative mind. Jayne

My mother was a very good seamstress and I loved watching her sew. That is where I got my love of fabric. I used to sew for myself and my children and then did a lot of crafts. I became interested in quilting about 10 years ago after buying several BOM kits on sale at Joann's to make some pillow tops. I enjoyed putting the blocks together and it grew from there. I started a quilt group at my church and we went to a Saturday Sampler class as a group where I learned a lot of the basics.I also belong to a larger quilt guild.
Linda OH

My mom was a sewer and made all of our clothes including my wedding dress. She worked in a fabric store from the time I was in junior high until retiring. My most vivid pictures of my mom is sewing with a cup of coffee near by.I loved to watch her touch fabric and rub it between her fingers!! She made quilts when I was away from the house and made all my maternity clothes and baby blankets for the girls.

Ironically I could not cut and glue to save my soul!! Craft projects at school were a disaster. Dad had to bail out my play dough relief map!! ugh. But yet I always wanted to do crafts. Died Easter eggs and saved the shells, etc.... oh well, I have rambled on...

My grandma from the other side embroidered blocks and made quilts for all of us at some point in our post high school days.

We had quilts that were on our beds but I am am not sure why I decided one time right out of high school to cut out blocks and make a quilt. I used fabric that was around the house nad sewed a 9 patch quilt that I must have made way to narrow of seams as it eventually all frayed. I then advanced?? to a polyester double knit quilt made of scraps and have been continuing off an on for35 plus years.

I came from a long line of seamstresses and it was just expected we would all do this and do it well. I gave up clothing long ago - except for the occasional costume for school.

I took up quilting as an art form more recently. With time on my hands and the tools I'd need, it seemed a good fit. I love designing and playing with colors.

I also make leaded glass windows and do woodworking and construction. I do all kinds of needlework and passed it on to daughter and GD as it was passed on to me. I do tend to acquire things, like fabric and old sewing machines. Sometimes old men, too. But, that's another story.

My mother was not a quilter but she did have a sewing machine that she used mostly for mending things. I'm not sure I ever even laid eyes no a quilt until I was an adult. When my first child was a toddler and I was a SAHM, a Singer store near my house had a sign in the window advertising a quilting class and I signed up somehow knowing I would like it. Well and I did and from then on it was more classes, books, magazines, the internet, and you know the rest. I don't do any other handi type activities except for a little gardening. I like to cook though.

Karlene what a great QOD!
My earliest memories are playing w/buttons on the floor while my mom sewed - everything! from our clothes (winter coats to wedding dresses) to draperies & upholstery. Sewed my own clothes while in school, but never got as good as my mom. Mom is an artist who paints, sews, knits, builds, etc, etc. (At 76 she has been on 6 demo/rebuilds for Hurricane Katrina victims. I have pics of her right after the hurricane doing demo in a full haz-mat suit! she's awesome!!) When she wanted to open a quilt shop, I offered to 'help out' - on top of a full time job - but soon I was needed at the shop too often so I quit to run 'our' store. Until the shop I had never quilted, now I can't stop! Both my sibs are creative, bro w/wood & machines, sis w/drama. I love to cook, garden, decorate & I sing both in a contemporary praise band & a Southern gospel quartet & just recently started singing Sacred harp. Our son is super analytical, all our daughters are creative but only one is doing anything w/it right now (makes jewelry).I know many men are creative & incredibly good at it. But I've always felt we women were made to be creative from the beginning of time. After all--we make families & that's the best creation of them all!!

When I was young, I started sewing, mostly clothes. My mom worked nights, so she slept during the day, but there was an older English woman in the apartment downstairs that would help me when I would get stuck. So, I pretty much taught myself. I think the first thing I sewed was a t-shirt for my Winnie the Pooh (he needed something to sleep in at night). There for a while, I made a lot of my clothes. Unfortunately, it's cheaper to buy them than it is to make them so I don't do much of that any longer. During this time, I also did some cross stitching an knitting (and still do from time to time).

I've always wanted to learn to quilt, and saw a class at my LQS. The first class I did was Baltimore Album. Over 2 years later, I'm still hooked. I have had a few other classes, mainly machine quilts. That's been fun, and since joining this site, I'm even more interested! I still do some cross stitching and knitting, but working full time with 2 small kids limits my craft time.

I started sewing in the 7th grade. I would stay at my grandparents in the summer and my grandmother helped me make my school clothes. When my kids were little I made clothes for them. I also did alot of crafty things with fabric but not quilts. I would make covers for furniture and pillows, curtains, car seat covers, just about anything. I started making quilts about 8 years ago. My husband passed away and he had 50+ t-shirts from where he worked, volunteering, places we had been, schools, etc. I couldn't throw them away. A friend took me to a quilt show and I was hooked. I saw a t shirt quilt there and knew what I had to do. I made 2 quilts from his tshirts, then made each of my boys a quilt from there old shirts, and then I got interested in wall quilts, and other types of quilts. I've lost count. I also crochet, my great grandmother taught me when I was young. I never accomplished knitting. I love to grow things, always have a veggie garden. Also have several fruit trees and grape vines. Pick wild blackberries and like to make jelly.
I don't think of myself as creative- I have to look at pictures and copy. I'm a science teacher so I'm probably more logical. My DH now is very creative, he loves to draw and plans out the garden. He has encouraged me in making quilts and likes to help with the colors.

I'm with solstice. I like to think I am right and left brained in equal doses. I used to work as an engineer, but that doesn't stop me from going off the deep end in creative or artistic projects. One isn't exclusive of the other and neither is more desirable than the other. I also was in Mensa, and had enough testing done to see my interests and skills are pretty much all over the board. Conflicting? Sometimes. Boring? Never.

Nobody close to me was all that interested in sewing, and nobody quilted. I have been sewing since twelve, and quilting three years now. Making a quilt was on my list of things I wanted to try. I saved a quilt pattern I'd seen in a magazine for maybe twenty years, and finally just did it. I found out when my mother was around ninety, she'd always wanted to make a quilt, too. I found the pieces she started. And I inherited her cache of material.....she never really used. But that did't stop her from collecting it for years, LOL. Bless her heart.