Helen's introduction

Hi everyone. I thought I'd take up Diane's suggestion to introduce myself.

I have only been quilting since January 2006. At that time I was travelling a lot and my longsuffering husband had been hopefully saving up all his shirt buttons that had fallen off until a time when I was in one place long enough to sew them on. So there I was at New Year's handsewing away and thinking how peaceful and restful it was. I was musing as to how different my life was compared to a woman who sewed a lot. A woman like, say an Amish woman with a rocking chair and a porch who might make a quilt. So, I Googled for 'Amish quilts' and fell down an Alice in Wonderland type rabbit hole into this whole wide world of quilting and textile art that I never even knew was there. And from there on in I was hooked. I have since cut back on work so I have more time for my new obsession and when I do travel for work, the sewing machine or handpiecing goes with me.

I will admit to having been very productive in the last twenty months but I am a little overawed at being invited into this group as I haven't really made what I would call art quilts yet. I am definately the baby of the group! However, I am excited about the challenge and to having a forum within which I can experiment and have fun with these multitude of new techniques I want to learn ( all at once!). I'm also looking forward to getting to know you all along with your art.