Where Did We Begin?

There's a fun idea going on courtesy of Robyn at Daisy Quilts called Where Did We begin? (see the link in my sidebar). The idea is to share stories and hopefully pictures about when we first started quilting.

Back in the age of the dinosaurs a bonnie wee lassie in Scotland of about the noble age of 10 took the compulsory sewing and cooking classes provided by the country noblemen. Twas a joyous experience and the monarch of the home economic realm, the divine Richardson, took said noble lassie under her wing and taught her almost everything she knew.
7 years of learning wondrous sewing techniques and taking dreaded exams passed. Some favorite things to do were setting fabric on fire (legally) and designing/making costumes for school plays. The lassie passed her exams and moved on to college where she kept her sanity by sewing and knitting wondrous, and sometimes very odd, creations.

Moving on many years i.e 1987.

Said lassie, now a lady (of sorts) moved to the colonies a.k.a. USA to marry her knight in shining armor. Hand made wedding dress and veil, with hundreds of teeny tiny pearls was created.
Here, in the colonies, she was introduced to the amazing art of cutting up pieces of fabric into even smaller pieces to create something called a quilt and her first sight of a thing called "a stash"(mother-in-laws "sewing room" that could only be entered by vandalism and some very creative climbing.) So this was/is QUILTING.
Looked interesting but she did not feel inclined to participate much and had left her beloved sewing machine back in the home land.

ARE YOU ALL STILL WITH ME OR HAVE YOU MOVED ON AND/OR FALLEN SLEEP !!!!!!!

As an aside - The lassie actively encouraged her new mother-in-law to enter one of her queenly sized creations in the State Fair. After 2 years of gentle nagging she caved in and it won best of show. Woohoo.

Time moves on, as always, and the little family increased somewhat. Then came a move to a new abode wherein the quilting thing took a turn to the serious side.
Some new friends invited the bonnie lady to join their quilt group. They nagged, they bribed, they eventually won. They set her cheater fabric of flowers and birds up on a  quilt frame and helped her hand sew in DMC pink floss all the hundreds of little stitches. Even her little princesses got in on the act and sat under the frame on occasion passing the needles back up through the fabric and attempting a few stitches.
Do I still have the quilt. Noooooooo. Do I have a picture. Yeeeeeees.......... somewhere in one of the family albums.
Enough of this story telling. I love applique and hand sewing the most and do mainly wall hangings. If I had my time over again I would have trained in Textile Design instead of Interior Design but such is life. I love my hobby. Next two entries show some early quilts.



P.S. Thanks to those of you who have entered the drawing thus far. It's been fun getting to know some of you better and visiting blogs :) For those of you visiting today and wanting to enter please scroll down to Wednesday's blog entry and leave a comment there. Runs till tomorrow (Saturday).