September is National Sewing Month

My grandparents

 September is National Sewing Month.  Bloggers have been encouraged to tell about how they got started sewing or quilting.  My fathers mother sewed clothes on a Singer treadle sewing machine.  My daddy wanted me to learn to sew like his mother.  I wasn't interested in sewing when I was growing up.  I did love the quilts that my grandmother had.  Her mother and sisters quilted.  My grandmother developed Alzheimer's while I was in high school.  I didn't get interested in sewing or quilting until after her death.

My great grandmother

 My daddy wanted me to learn to sew, so badly, that he bought me my first sewing machine for Christmas when I was in 2nd grade.  He knew how to thread it and sew on it, but, I still wasn't interested, to his great disappointment. I kept that machine until it disappeared when we moved to Illinois.  I wish I knew what happened to that machine. 

 My great grandmother quilted.  She gave my parents a quilt when they were married.  As children, we played Matchbox cars on that quilt.

My parents wedding quilt

 I started a quilt in college.  I didn't know what I was doing.  I bought several fabrics and cut them into squares.  I never got any further than that.  I don't know what happened to that fabric.

 In 2011, I signed up for a quilting class at my church.  I made my first quilt, a mini quilt.  I rushed so that I could show the finished quilt to my daddy at Thanksgiving.  The rest of the class hadn't even started to hand quilt theirs yet.  Thus, I taught myself how to hand quilt and bind.  My daddy was please that I finally wanted to learn sewing in some form. 

My daddy

 My father died from Alzheimer's in November 2009.  As a tribute to him and his mother, I wanted to find a Singer treadle sewing machine for myself, and sew on it.  In August/September 2010, I acquired three Singer treadle sewing machines in 4 weeks.  I have sewn on the first treadle, a Singer 15 series from 1896.  My daddy and my grandmother would have been so happy.