Toby LischkoI have have always been interested in crafts from a very early age. I was about 8 years old when my dad made me a spool weaver. You would wind and weave yarn on it and it would come through the hole as a tube. I dressed up my dolls with long tubes sewn together. As I got older I started teaching myself knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, needlepoint, crewel, English smocking, even tatting! Each hobby lasted a few years but I would eventually get bored with them.
I come from a long line of sewers. No one in my family has ever quilted, but my mother was a home economics teacher and seamstress and her father was a tailor. In 1985 I thought it would be fun for my mom and I to do something together, so we signed up for our first quilting class with Jackie Robinson, then the owner of a quilt shop in St. Louis, Missouri. I was working full time as a Special Education teacher and this was my summer activity. I would take the lesson home and work on it until 2:00 or 3:00 A.M. so I would not forget what I learned. In the six week class, I finished 5 or 6 quilt tops (some of which never got quilted). I was so proud of myself that I was able to put 3 colors together (light, medium, and dark)! That summer I got hooked on quilting and I have to say that I have never, in the 30+ years I have been quilting, gotten bored with it. It just keeps getting better!