"When and Why I Started Quilting"
by Andi Reynolds
Keota, Iowa

A lifelong North Carolinian, I left behind a great friend when my husband's career brought us to Tallahassee. She had just begun working on her Ph.D. as I left. I wanted to make something special for her - we shared an interest in all kinds of needlework, but nothing seemed special enough. Riding around town one day, I thought, "I'll make her a quilt!" My next thought was, "I don't know how to do that!" Fortunately, we had a quilt shop listed in the yellow pages and they offered beginning quilt classes. After making the obligatory class sampler and a crib quilt, I launched my friend's gift - a queen-sized Lone Star (in the days before paper piecing). I've been quilting ever since that fateful day in 1989.