Who taught you needlework skills and when did you first start learning?

Some of the teachers who will be teaching at the SAGA Convention in Winston-Salem answer that question.

Judith Adams teaching at a SAGA event.

Judith Adams:

I have some pieces of petit point that I worked when I was 10 or 12 but can’t really remember much about them.When I lived on an Australian Air Force Base (my husband was the Senior Dental Officer at the time ) we had a USAF exchange officer and his family living there and I was taught by the officer’s wife. I was pregnant with my daughter at the time (1984) and loved smocking and bought a pleater immediately. 

Kathy Awender, left, helps a student at a SAGA event.

Kathy Awender:

My mother, aunt , grandmother all taught me different things. My mother always sewed for all five of her daughters, and I was very excited when she finally taught me how to use the sewing machine just before seventh grade. That is when I started making my own clothes. My grandmother taught me to embroider and an aunt taught me to knit and crochet.

Jeannie Baumeister (right) with Susie Gay

Jeannie Baumeister:

My Mother taught me to sew using her Featherweight Sewing Machine (it is now my Featherweight Sewing Machine) and my favorite color is always Blue!

Tess Ellenwood on the right

Tess Ellenwood:

 As a child, I was surrounded by grandmothers, aunts, and a mom who could sew, knit, crochet, and tat.  Even my dad was accomplished at picking up dropped knitting stitches.  My earliest sewing memory is from when I was little more than two.  My mom had cut the feet from my pajamas because they had gotten too short. I got up in the night, found a needle in the sewing box (it must have been already threaded), and attempted to sew the feet back on.  I’ve been stitching ever since.  

Cindy Foose:When I was about five-years-old, my Aunt Carrye decided it was time for me to learn to do simple embroidery. She believed that every home should have embroidered cup towels and/or fingertip towels. Her long suit was lazy daisy flowers, French knots, and stem/outline stitches all of which graced many items in her home. Guided by her early, gentle instructions I found a lifelong passion. My construction skills have evolved over the last sixty years by applying what I describe as “The Three Ps” – patience, practice, and perseverance. Successes coupled with failures have bred an ongoing determination to improve and hone all my needlework/sewing skills. This quest keeps me awake at night!

Susan O'Conner, centre, teaching at a SAGA event 

Susan O’Conner:

My mother taught me basic embroidery stitches when I was a child. As I really enjoyed embroidery I then learned other stitches and techniques from books and classes.

Vanue Pierce, centre, teaching at a SAGA event.

Vaune Pierce:

For VERY basic embroidery – self-taught with Simplicity embroidery transfers onto a chambray shirt (this was in the 70's).
'Heirloom Embroidery' - the first class I took was Bullions from Julia Golson and made lots of nice grubby worms.  The embroideresses in Madeira on the two times I visited, along with Lillie McAnge were instrumental in the embroidery that I do now.

So who taught you to sew?