What started it all

I have been crafting and sewing for as long as I can remember.  As a little girl, I was in 4-H and sewed and made things each year for the fair.  Back then, it was more of a love/hate relationship.  Oh, how I hated being patient and waiting to see the finished product, and I HATED the seam ripper even more.  I still cringe when I see that thing.  My teen years I taught myself to crochet with the help of my grandma and a nice elderly lady at the nursing home I worked in.  I made several things crocheting through my highschool and college years, but desperately wanted to learn to knit. After high school, I was also without a sewing machine since I no longer lived at home, so my sewing days had gone by the wayside.  Somewhere between 2000-2003, i taught myself to knit.  I know it was somewhere between those years, because my daughter's (who was born in 2000) baby blanket was crocheted and my son's (who was born in 2003) baby blanket is knitted.  I love to knit and still do quite a bit of knitting; but save it mainly for when I cannot be at home in front of my sewing machine.

At some point, I acquired my mom's old sewing machine, and would sporadically sew.  The machine was old and I could NEVER get it to work.  It made sewing so frustrating, but I knew if i could get a new machine, I may be able to sew more.  In 2007 (I think) I talked my husband into letting me buy a new sewing machine for my birthday.  I loved it and sewed and sewed and sewed.  I made cloth diapers for my son, and other random small projects.  My sewing ability grew as did my love for it. Although I'd made several blankets and "rag quilts", in September of 2010 I made my first "real quilt". I "blog-taught" myself to free motion quilt, and how to bind and finish my quilt. I was hooked.  I shortly after made a quilt for a very dear friend of mine for her baby. It was the hardest thing I had ever made, but I was up for the challenge. I am now using every free second I have to sew.  I plan on using this blog as a way to record my craftings, and maybe even progress pictures.  While I am guessing it will mainly be sewing, you may see an occasional knitting or other crafting project.
And the  first several posts will be projects that are already done, and the pictures of them need to come off my camera.  I will slowly but surely catch up to what I am doing present time

Oh, and as for the name of my blog; I made a few cloth diapers for a friend of mine, and every time her little boy would wear them, he would say "this one was made by Miss Jill".  So even though I'm happily married, the name stuck and if I ever open my own business from home, this will be it's name.