12. Tell about learning a skill from either of your parents, cooking, sewing, cleaning, fixing things, etc

Hmmm, where do you start on something like this. I learned so much from my mom, and when my step dad, came along, so much from him. I learned how to make pancakes and syrup very early on in my life. A kid, actually. When I went to my friends homes and spent the night, they would have bisquick. I had never eaten that, so I would call my mom and ask how to make pancakes. Then, I learned how to make bread, and from that cinnamon rolls. These became a part of the lives of my kids and my husband, John. When I wanted to make Jelly, mom just told me to buy a package of pectin and read the instructions. Really? That is what she did? Yes. So those are the things I learned from her early on. And those things stuck. I couldn’t learned to make gravy. I would call her every time I made a turkey, a roast or anything that had juice from the meat. I couldn’t make a decent gravy to save my soul. I still cant. So, needless to say, if we wont gravy, we buy a can or a package. Mine tastes like glue, no matter how I do it.

When I grew up, one day mom learned to make a quilt from her granddaughter. It was a really easy quilt to make, called a rail fence. I would imagine that is a beginner quilt for a lot of people. So she made a quilt for one of the grandbabies, and then I asked her to make one for my grandbaby, Jessica. She told me if I wanted Jessica to have her own quilt, I could learn to make one myself. So she set about teaching me to make a quilt. We went to the fabric store to pick out fabric. I couldn’t find all the right fabric in that one store, Joanne’s, so we went to another store.

When we got there, there were a bunch of ladies there working on their own quilts. I looked at their projects and told them I was making my first quilt. They inquired about the pattern and fabric so I told them I had bought some at Joanne’s. Well, you should have seen how thy reacted to that. They all told me the fabric at Joanne’s wasn’t any good and why bother making a quilt out of that. You really should buy it from a real fabric store. I was so intimidated by what they said. I turned around and searched for the better fabric from the store we were in. It took me a long time, and it cost so much more that at Joanne’s. That must be the difference, it is better fabric, cus it costs so much more.

When mom and I left that store, she told me not to pay attention to those ladies. They don’t know everything, and not everyone can afford to pay that much money for a yard of fabric. Just buy fabric from where you want, at the cost you can afford. As long as there isn’t anything wrong with it, its good. Those ladies comments stayed with me for the longest time. I now call them quilting snobs. I try not to be a quilting snob.

So as time went on, mom and I were quilting partners. If there was a new quilt we wanted to make, we would buy a book and learn together how to make it. Sometimes, we would only make one version of the new quilt, due to the difficulty of the project. Neither of us ever took a class, we just read instructions over and over and made a lot of mistakes. It turned the when I would go to mms to work on something, she would sew, and I would iron. I would work on my own projects at home at the same time. I loved working with mom though. It was such a special time for me. In all my life, it took this long to finally get one on one time with my mom.

I treasure that time with her. Of all the things taught to my by my mom and dad, quilting was the best. I have been able to pass this talent on to my friend, and she loves it also. I did the same thing with her that my mom did with me. If you want a quilt for your grandkids, I will show you how to make one. This allowed us to become closer friends, and I treasure that as well. I knew this would be along one, it is my favorite one so far.