„Starting at the age of three I watched my grandmother sewing and later on, she taught me everything she knew. And since then I’ve always been creative – sewing the dresses for my dolls und teddybears.“ That’s how many quilters describe their creative development. Well – not for me.

Although my grandmother was a seamstress and I did watch her sew and played with the content of her button box I hated handicraft. I’m of the generation that had to learn everything in school and my teachers in knitting, crocheting and sewing weren’t very supportive. So, my grades were not too good and my enthusiasm for everything handmade therefore not too high.

When I left school, knitting was very much en vogue, so I started again and had a lot of fun with it. But sewing – no way for me. But then ….

…. my then boyfriend (now husband) and I went for a vacation to the US east coast. Without much planning we just drove around in a rented car and by pure chance landed in Amish County in Pennsylvania. And there I saw my first quilts – I had never seen such a beautiful „blanket“ before. With the exception of England, handmade quilts were unknown in Europe.

A few years later we spent a couple of months in the US and stayed at the house of a quilting friend. So, there was a sewing machine, a quiltshop in the next city and a library with quilting books nearby (the quilting friend was on vacation). There I started and finished my first quilt – a schoolhouse block. And as they say: the rest is history.

Back home in Europe I lived over a large shop selling books and magazines and to my delight they carried „Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine“, which became my bible. There I learned about a quilt show in Germany. I went to see it and saw a piece of paper on the bulletin board informing me about a quilting group in Vienna. I immediately joined them which led to a lot of fun, a lot of quilting friends, a lot of knowledge and a lot of quilts.

Still relying heavily on „Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine“ I realized that there was no magazine for quilters in German language. So I started „Patchwork- und Quiltjournal“ which I edited for more than 20 years.

Happily retired, I can now concentrate on making the quilts I want to create (compared to sewing what was needed for the magazine), on taking long walks with my dog, on playing with my camera, on cooking and on baking. And as I want to share my quilts, my tips and tricks (collected over 35 years of quilting) and to stay in touch with quilters all around the world I started this blog – my very own little QuiltingSpace. Thank you for visiting me.
Gabi Maier