I made my first two quilts as a senior in high school, thinking it would be great to move away from home with two lovely quilts. The first one was based on a completely misguided magazine suggestion. Even if the tubes of batting had held up, the quilt was never going to be warm because you either had 5 inches of batting or none, depending upon where your body parts were in relationship to the horizontal seams. The second was made out of denim, top and backing. It was so heavy you had to sleep with your feet pointed toward the foot of the bed like a ballerina.
Thankfully the first one fell apart in months, and the neighbors had a small house fire so I could give away the second.
At that point I was pretty much done with quilting. I went on to other things and the years passed.
My mother however who for those initial quilts had been totally untrained and no help at all, had over the years gotten into quilting big time. She was absolutely confident that I would enjoy quilting. I was equally sure I would not.
Five years of nagging later, I gave in. I made one traditional quilt, one wall hanging, and then shifted to art quilts and never looked back. While I deeply admire traditional quilters, its just too hard to follow someone else's directions and I have a deep need to change all the rules anyway, so its easier just to start fresh.
My first sewing machine was a model 803 Bernina which I purchased in 1975. I continue to construct my quilt on that machine today. In 2000 I purchased another very basic model, this time an Industrial Bernina designed to sew in manufacturing plants with a 10" needle to neck measurment. No needle-up function, no specialty stitches, no computerization. In fact it's cast iron, and I've told my husband that if a tornado ever does hit, we need to make sure we dig this machine out of the rubble, because I'm sure it will have survived just fine.
Many people covet sewing machines with all the bells and whistles. I want one that will run without fail, sew without fussing, and if Bernina ever gets around to figuring out that we need a larger needle to neck measurement I'd be incredibly pleased.
The toys I do covet are computers, software, web design and digital imaging programs. I love designing with a mixture of pencil and software so my design work flow has changed, but in addition I've found that building web sites is as much fun as constructing quilts.
I currently manage the Darting Needles Quilt Guild web site for a local Wisconsin guild. In addition, I've volunteered to build a site for my local Zion United Methodist Church of Denmark Wisconsin and our sister church. The ball is their court as they develop the text, but I'm looking forward to watching all three of these sites grow over the years.