I have been a sewer most of my life, making my first outfit in 3rd grade. My mom was a Fashion Major in college with she first started, wanting to be a fashion designer. She got ill with rheumatic fever and had to quit school, she never went back. I grew up with her sewing, all the time. When we lived near my grandparents (after my dad got out of the Air Force) my mom and her mom would spend days sewing various outfits for them, for my sister and myself. She taught my brothers basic mending~ such as repairing rips and sewing on buttons. When I was in junior high (now called middle school or intermediate school) and high school there was a class called "Home Economics" , which was required. The schools now, here anyway, don't even offer the course. It wasn't a choice it was a class we had to take. In Jr. hi. we spent half a school year (girls only) learning to cook and half a year learning the basics of sewing. I took Home Ec in my freshman year of high school so I could get it out of the way. When it was over my mom told me to forget everything I learned in school and she would teach me to sew, and she did. However, it started long before I ever took a class. There isn't much I cannot sew, there is more I choose not sew. I do not have an industrial machine, so I care not to sew heavy denims or canvas and the such. I enjoy making dresses and play cloths for my granddaughter, and she enjoys receiving them.
After my first child was born, I took up crocheting, which I learned to do at the age of 6. Let me rephrase that, I learned to crochet at age 6, I perfected it as an adult, so when I did crochet I actually made something!!!! My great-grandmother quilted a little and it was always a goal of mine. So after all my kids grew up (2 of them married) I finally took up a quilting class ~~with the help of a friend. Currently I am working on 2 and will start another next week. I have made 2 and completed them. One my grandson uses when he visits, I took a class for that one. The other I made entirely on my own (meaning no classes or colleagues help). I had the help of my husband (picking out some material) and my youngest son who along with his dad laid out the pattern of the cars.
It was a Christmas gift for my oldest son. He is currently restoring a 1959 El Camino, of which is depicted in the quilt. It was a fun project, once I figured out the pattern I wanted to use. I even did the quilting of it, which is time consuming.
This is the kind of help I got when I was sewing.
I am taking a "Hand Quilting" class in a week and a half. I then want Eric to bring his quilt back to me so I can hand quilt around the cars, which will high-light them. 
