Don't worry, I'm not searching for my roots or getting esoteric. I am just curious how my fellow quilters found quilting - or how it found them. I am a bit of an accidental quilter, even though I have always loved needlecrafts. A chance 'pop into a shop' on a chance 'I need lunch' stop off in a random small town whilst on honeymoon is the culprit for starting my quilting adventure.
However, in terms of where I "came from" - my needlework beginnings almost did not get off the ground at all, as although I loved this subject at school, we had a rather touchy-feely matronly teacher who liked to fondle us in the way that most of us prefer to fondle fabric.
Happily, despite having dropped Needlework in favour of Art, when I was 17 one of my Christmas presents was a Forever Friends cross-stitch like this one:
Smitten as I was with my new boyfriend at the time, I duly stitched it up in proclamation of our puppy love. Stupidly I then gave it to him so I no longer have it. And although our puppy love never grew into a full grown Alsatian, I had definitely been bitten by the stitching bug.
Over the next decade I cross-stitched away merrily, occasionally doing a bit of embroidery but always returning to cross stitch. It was my first love and I am still very fond of it (unlike my first boyfriend). But it doesn't quite push my buttons any more. Maybe because it confines the stitcher to the grid - but then there is something very comforting about knowing what it will look like at the end.
Just as I have a huge pile of quilting fabrics waiting patiently for their turn to be stitched, so I have a considerable pile (but not enormous - I didn't have much money in my twenties) of cross stitch kits waiting to be made up. And this week I finally finished one that I had started whilst I was expecting Baby #2 and thought I could finish it before she was born:
The pattern is "ABC Lessons" by Lizzie*Kate and uses some hand dyed variegated thread to give it a bit more depth.
And fittingly it includes our family motto (or what I say to my kids 300 times a day...)
So where do you come from? What is the primordial soup of your needlework? I would love to know!
I come from a long line of sewers and stitchers. When I was around 14 I remember wanting to make a shift style dress and my mom and grandmother helped me. I loved that little red calico dress and wore it out. I started sewing all my own clothes. I have tried my hand at needlepoint and knitting, but my true love is sitting at the sewing machine. It was a natural progression to move on to quilting. I had strong mentors when I expressed my first interest in sewing and feel like I should try to pass it on to others.
ReplyDeleteThis is so lovely Nicole! I wish my grandmothers had sat and sewed and taught me - it is so lovely when skills are handed down the generations. I hope one day my daughters will want to learn stitching from me - I have loved making them little dresses while they are still small.
DeleteThat cross stitch is beautiful, and I love your family motto too! Both my grandmothers sewed, but never taught me due to lack of time and failing eyesight. I sewed a bit as a Guide, but didn't really sew for years until I was offered an old machine a few years ago - now I love being able to use my more creative side!
ReplyDeleteYour cross stitch sampler is really lovely Gertie. I am sure your daughter will treasure it.
ReplyDeleteMy mother made a lot of my clothes when I was growing up although never passed the knowledge on. She was, and still is, an avid cross stitched and did pass that love on. Like you I have several cross stitch UFO`s of more years standing than I am willing to admit too. I went to an evening class to learn Patchwork and Quilting and although the teacher was less than inspiring I was soon hooked :)
So glad you moved on from Forever Friends - your work is beautiful. And you are right - there is not enough kindness in the world.
ReplyDeleteI started a cross stitch when my eldest was about 6 months - I finally finished it when she was 16! I started quilting after a trip to America too. I bought a magazine and the rest is history!!
ReplyDeleteLove the cross stitch. I started sewing because I wanted to make a baby carrier and quickly realised that making a quilt is a damn sight easier :)
ReplyDeleteWhen my hubster and I bought our first house, I got a sewing machine thinking that I would make a few cushions and curtains but after a couple of awful disasters, the machine was relegated to be *a very expensive door stop* for many years...
ReplyDeleteThen when our littlest dandelion was born, I *met* some lovely natural mamas {that Kelly ^ being one of them}. Their creativity spread to me and I thought I would try and make a bandana bib for the baby. I really loved it and made a few crayon rolls and some more bibs and then Kelly and another mama were always showing us these gorgeous quilts that they'd made and I thought, heck, I'll just make one huge quilt... and then another... and then I was hooked!
Oh I have to laugh....I've been to that shop in Canmore!!!
ReplyDeleteI started out quilting at school - aged 11, English paper piecing of hexagons to make a cushion cover, except I couldn't stop and by the age of 18 it had developed into a single bed sized 'quilt', backed with an old sheet and not quilted it saw me through my time at uni and several flats afterwards. i still have it (and it's hidden away because it's hideous) and I can't bear to get rid of it!!
I was given a sewing set aged about four! I had a tapestry bunny, never finished, and an embroidery set, as well as a knitting kit. With printed instructions. From that I learnt to knit and sew, ( I couldn't follow the way to cast off, but I could cast on, and do garter stitch). Patchwork started when I was in my teens, after I had learnt to make my own clothes. and quilting- when I was into my 50s!
ReplyDeleteI kind of took it up to annoy a woman I used to work with. does that make me shallow?
ReplyDeleteI tried all sorts of stitching and needle and thread crafts as a kid and my first love was cross stitch too. I was completely absorbed by it from about 14-24 when I discovered patchwork. 12 years later and I still patchwork and hardly cross stitch ever anymore. It's just too slow for me now!
ReplyDeleteI remember my great-grandmother doing a lot of crochet and teaching me how to hold a hook. And my grandmother knitted, crocheted, sewed and embroidered, including finishing all the projects I started and couldn't finish as a child - a blue and white knitted panda bear, a jersey as a birthday present for my mom, a basque skirt for my school needlework class... And my mother is the most skilled needlewoman I know. She can stitch, sew, embroider, knit, quilt, crochet, dressmake, you name it. So I count myself incredibly lucky to have learnt my skills first hand from three generations of talented women. I've never done any cross stitch myself, but I really like your ABC. Nice work.
ReplyDeleteI am so envious of people who learned from grandmothers and mothers! I think I shall have to do the next best thing and pass it onto my 2 girls :)
DeleteI always knitted from about the age of 5, and cross stitched and embroidery, Santa always brought some sort of stitching think. I also had that bear cross stitch. I was always sewing doll's clothes as well. In my early 30s a girl I met at twins club suggested I try patchwork, and that was that! I met one of my closest friends at patchwork, and she has been to the Sugar Pine quilt shop you mentioned, it is a small world.
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