Do you sew or want to sew?

Over the years, I have had many friends ask about learning to sew. I find it funny that  several of them had machines, but didn't know how to thread it, much less know how to sew on it. Umm? One said that her mother gave it to her, another said he found it at a garage sale, yet still another said she just wanted one and paid a small fortune for it. Again Ummmmm? For those who have a sewing machine and can competently use it, bravo! For those of you who have a machine and know nothing about it,,, Ummmmm? and why? Come on now what's the hold up? If you don't have a manual, I know the feeling,  machine manuals can be had on the Internet usually for free or a small price. then there is a wealth of information from individuals in forums and chat rooms. Or ask me, I love the old machines and they are so basic a child can learn. Take a class, from some one who knows how to sew.
Does it thunk or clunk? Then it sounds like it needs a good cleaning and oiling. That is easy too. Not sure? Take it to a repair man.
The point is you will never learn if you don't explore it.
I first started out on my moms White with a piece of ruled notebook paper. She just said  sew on the lines. When I had mastered a full sheet of paper, I went to a piece of stripe pillow ticking the blue one. Took me awhile but I finally got it right. Then I sewed little squares of scraps together.

If you want it bad enough, it will happen, just don't let that machine go to waste. If you have it learn to use it. You will be glad you did.

Welcome

There is always something on my quilt wall.

I welcome you to my blog. My name is Paula and I have been an avid quilter since I was small. My mother taught me to sew. Like many of you it started out with small scraps that I claimed from my moms sewing table and were used mostly for Barbie doll clothes. Of course they wouldn't have hit the Paris runways, but my Barbie never complained. My sister Kay was always drawing pictures of models with her own clothing designs, she was a seamstress too, (I think sewing it ran in the family), so making a tiny tube skirt just came kinda natural for me. I remember my Dad telling me that my Grandmother quilted out of necessity when she was a young married woman and often tore up clothing or boxes of feed sacks she has received from friends and neighbors. I didn't realize then that sewing was as versatile today as it was back then and it seemed like every married woman back then owned her own sewing machine. I was sewing on my moms old White machine by the time I was around 8 years old. Broke a lot of needles, and dealt with many bird nests, but the more I sewed the better I got. I did lots of dolly blankets, most without batting, I did clothing for my dolly's too. Then I graduated to patterns having to figure then out for myself. My Mom got terribly sick and died two years later of leukemia. I gave up sewing after that until I got married and had kids of my own. Then it turned to necessity once again, but this time I found true quilting and have been in love with it ever since.