About the Artist
The most common question I get about quilting is “how did you learn how to quilt?” This question is usually accompanied by hesitant tone of voice, and a doubting look. Why you might ask? Well, I generally attribute this to my age, given that the prevailing image of a quilter is a frail grannie. As I write this I am 29 years old. I probably do not fit into the “typical” view of what a quilter should look like.
Well, in case you are curious, here is the real answer.
I did learn a bit of how to quilt from my gramma.
And by learned, I mean I just watched my gramma quilt. When I was
growing up, we lived with my mom’s mom. She
was a quilter. I remember about 2
or 3 years where she was working on this quilt made entirely out of hexagons.
After that, she made one quilt for me, and one for my brother.
Mine was made out of circles, and his was diagonal set rectangles
arranged in a long line. I was
probably about 8 years old when she started working on these few quilts.
I didn’t give quilting a try at this point.
You see, gramma did everything by hand.
Everything. This is what she
enjoyed, and she really did not enjoy using the sewing machine.
With 8-year-old perceptions of time, I thought that the years that went
into making each of these quilts was slightly insane.
Fast forward to when I was 23 years old. I had graduated from college with a degree in Civil Engineering. I had been working in my first “adult” job for about a year. I worked as a consultant in a software company. I had that schedule where I traveled Sunday through Thursday every week, and spent a very small amount of at my small apartment in Austin, Texas. However it was at this time in my life that my mother decided that she was going to give me a sewing machine for my birthday.
I have to admit, I was a little irritated at the present.
That same year, she gave my brother a DVD player – a gift that I
thought would be much more practical. I
thought it was exceptionally uncool to have this highly gender-biased item.
I went along with the plan, and picked out a machine, and brought it
home. It sat unused for well over a
year.
So I mentioned that I had been working in a software company. Well, as many people know, the software industry began to have problems in 2001. With signs that the rest of the economy was suffering as well in April of 2001, I was laid off. While this was bad for my checkbook, it proved to be one of the best things that ever happened to me.
My friend Laura, also living in Austin, is a Canadian citizen. In April of 2001 she was still waiting for her visa status to be changed. Until that happened, she was not able to work. Early that year, Laura had taken up quilting as something to do to pass the time since she was not able to have a proper job. By the time that I lost my job, she and a few of her friends were getting together on a regular basis to sew. Since I had time on my hands now, I started going over to her house, and it was at these sessions that I decided that quilting might be a pretty fun hobby.
Why the shift from thinking quilting would be horribly tedious, to thinking it would be a fun thing to do? Well, sewing machines made an enormous difference. Laura had been borrowing my sewing machine, which seemed sensible, since I really wasn’t using it. Sadly, since I decided that I wanted to start sewing and quilting, Laura had to go out and get her own sewing machine. With a returned machine, I went to my local fabric shop, and bought a few pieces of fabric – and started making something involving rectangles.
While that first project (and truth be told, the second project as well) were nothing to shout about, somehow in the projects got me going. I discovered quilting shows on television. I started looking at quilting websites. I discovered the local quilt shops, that specialize in quilting. And then there was a point, when something just clicked. I don’t know exactly when it happened, but I became completely obsessed with quilting.
That being said, quilting is quite simply my passion.
-Stephannie C. Behrens