100 things

100 things about my quilting that people may not know
1. I started quilting in 1974 to help a friend with a quilting demonstration.
2. I was instantly hooked
3. My first quilting lesson was sitting and watching a lady hand quilt on a frame
4. I learned nothing and have had no real quilt training since
5. Machine quilting (and piecing) wasn’t considered quilting when I started, so I had to teach myself
6. I did just that and still do
7. I did take a quilt class in guild one year. The teacher was awful, and everyone in the class came to me to ask questions, so I don’t count that as a class I took.
8. Oh, I hired a teacher to teach quilt-as-you-go at a retreat one year, and I sat in, so maybe I have taken a class, if that counts.
9. The very first quilting project I attempted was a Long Star.
10. I finished it (eventually) and still have it.
11. I actually still have three of my first four quilt projects, none are quilts.
12. When I went looking for quilt books back then there weren’t many. The one I bought was only diagrams of blocks, no directions and not a single measurement.
13. I decided to pick my favorites from above book and make a quilt. I cut out all the pieces, then years (almost 20) later I threw them all away.
14. I have thrown other unfinished projects away
15. I have throw finished projects away, can you say ugly and poorly made?
16. I just remembered, Candy did a quilt project at a retreat another year, and I did that, but was that a class or a project, and what is the difference?
17. I taught myself quilting by trial and lots and lots of errors.
18. I am a quilting packrat
19. I usually, underline usually, know where to find things
20. I love sharing my quilting stuff
21. I love sharing my quilting knowledge
22. I love Electric Quilt and have since EQ2
23. I don’t use half of what EQ6 has to offer
24. My favorite color is purple
25. The color you see the most in my stash is red
26. The color you see the least in my stash is pink
27. I don’t really have a color I don’t like
Although, I rarely wear green, make me look sick.
28. I prefer old fashioned traditional patterns
29. I love twisting up old fashioned traditional patterns and making them new
30. I’m not much into art quits, but I appreciate them, well some of them anyway
31. I don’t like appliqué, not one tiny bit. I love looking at it, I just don’t do it
32. Paper piecing is a waste of paper and time, totally
33. My favorite quilt is the one I am working on now, or the ones I guess, since I work on many at a time.
34. I love 30s fabrics and reproductions, but only the ones that look like real 30s fabrics and feed sacks.
35. At one time I owned every Aunt Grace fabric on the market, but I ran out of room to store them, and I use them, so they aren’t all fabric any more. Some are now quilts.
36. I have almost two dozen quilts using nothing but Aunt Grace Fabrics
37. Only one of my 48 UFOs is made with Aunt Grace fabrics
38. I have a total of 48 UFOs on my UFO list
39. The oldest UFO was started in 1991
40. The newest UFO was started last spring
41. I like piecing better than quilting, which is why I have 48 UFOs
42. I send most of my quilts out to be quilted
43. I have a list of a dozen or so quilters
44. I don’t share my favorite quilters names but keep them secret, or try
45. There are a total of 15 new patterns/mysteries in the works as of today 1/25/10
46. There is one new pattern in the works for the November Retreat (and Mystery group)
47. There are 11 new quits in my EQ file which I have not even started the patterns or diagrams for.
48. I get my ideas for patterns from all over, and hardly ever from quilt books.
49. I own a full bookcase and then some of quilting books
50. I have not touched one of the above (not since we moved them upstairs in August 2008)

I’m never going to make it to 100….
Maybe it would be easier to write 100 things I want to do before I die, you know, my own Bucket List… but that would be too easy to list, simply my UFO list and a whole bunch of PIGS (Projects in Grocery Sacks)and WHIMMs (Works hidden in my mind) I could go over 100 easy on that list!
To be continued… I hope.