Ahhh you come under the heading type of quilting thrill seeker!
Its a wonderful way that you came to be here, and whether you ever finish
another quilt or not Im glad you stick around. There have been so many times
your posts have opened another veiwpoint to me, cut thru the chaff and
gotten to the meat of an issue. Sometimes its even about quilting!
Thank you for sharing your tale.
Diana, almost sated but dont let that stop anyone!.. Please! lol

--
http://photos.yahoo.com/lunamom44
"Julia Altshuler" wrote in message
...
I remember being interested in sewing going all the way back to elementary
school, but I come from such a non-practical, non-hands on family that
learning
back then was impossible. It was worse than impossible. My mother
actively
disliked traditional women's work to the point of making fun of people who
do
it.

Grown and on my own for many years, I answered a classified ad to learn
sewing
in a woman's home. That worked out great. I wasn't exactly a talented
student,
but I loved my teacher, the lessons, the effort, the result. When my
teacher
took time off, I took a beginning quilt class. I wasn't sure I'd like it.
Turns out I did! That would have been in 1992.

About that time, the Florida library consortium got grant money to give
Internet
accounts to anyone who signed up. I wasn't sure I wanted anything to do
with
that newfangled stuff, but my boyfriend insisted that I should have an
account
so I filled out the paperwork and was given a password. The accounts
could be
used from the Broward Public Library or dialing in from home. It wasn't
full
Internet access, just a handful of websites and usenet groups and email,
and no
graphics at all. Looking back, it wasn't much, but it was plenty. I was
wired!

Using the watered down make-it-easy Internet access that I had, I found a
quilting mailing list and signed up. I loved it and began discovering
this odd
business of making far-flung friends with people I'd never met. I
remember
sending my first email message and dancing in the dining room. Way cool!
I
remained devoted to that private mailing list until it went commercial.
Suddenly I was expected to pay for something that should have been free.
My
boyfriend, especially, is of the sex, drugs and rock & roll generation.
He has
strong feelings about the free software movement. We talked about the
implications of paying for a mailing list and decided that the list owner
was
doing nothing wrong but that I no longer cared to subscribe. That's when
I
first found rec.crafts.textiles.quilting. I did a google search. My
first
posts were in 1995.

Honestly, I didn't like it at first. It took me a while to learn how
camaraderie forms over time. I had to stick around, learn the cast of
characters, learn the culture of each group.

Meanwhile, my quilting was going great guns. I never used to think of
myself as
a finisher. I'd always gotten interested in something half-heartedly and
moved
on to something else. Finishing one quilt was a miracle. Finishing more
was
amazing.

Since then, I've drifted in and out of many quilting activities. I'll
subscribe
to one magazine, let it lapse, then try another. I'll take a class, make
one
sort of quilt, hang around usenet, join a guild, quit, join another,
experiment
with one color scheme, then another. The constant is quilting.

--Lia