When do quilters start calling themselves quilters? Have you ever thought of when you decided that your were a quilter? When I took my first quilt class I would tell people, " I'm learning to make a quilt".
I have sewn since a very young age. My older sister bought me my first sewing machine for Christmas when I was 10. I had a very small bedroom with no room for a table and I would sew on the floor. I would sit with my leg bent and work the foot pedal with my knee. If I could only get down on the floor like that nowadays! I sewed on the floor all my teenage years. I don't remember the first time I actually had my machine up on a table. Probably in home economics class was when I first sewed sitting in a chair.
Once I knew how to sew, I wouldn't have called myself a seamstress. I couldn't draft my own patterns. I wasn't a tailor that could alter armholes, take up the bodice, or change the fit. I might try but I wasn't good at it. I could just say, "I can sew".
When I started that first quilt in class it was the beginning of a change in my life. I enjoyed the process of making blocks. It wasn't difficult, just a learning curve. Instead of a ⅝ inch seam you used a ¼ inch. The terms were like a foreign language. I enjoyed all the new friends that had similar interests. When I completed that first quilt I still didn't say, I'm a quilter. This is a picture of my first quilt.
I really don't know exactly at what point I would call myself a quilter. Even that term has different meanings. A quilter can be someone who makes just the quilt top. It can be a person who quilts the top, batting, and backing together. It can be a person who does all of it from beginning to end.
Now quilting has really taken over my life! At some point it was just natural to say, "I'm a quilter". And now I say, "I'm a quilter and longarm quilter". At what point did that happen for you? When did you start calling yourself a quilter?
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