As far as quilting, definitely not the younger years. House renovations, raising children, running a business, made creativity something one squeezed in to be indulged in more instantly-gratifying ways. Frankly, my behind never graced a chair long enough to sew anything other than clothes, costumes, curtains or mending or Christmas gifts. That's why I carried a quilting pattern around for twenty five years. ;-)

The biggest obstacle for me, however, was patience. It used to bother me terribly to start a project I could not work on continually until completion. I think had I started quilting before I was endowed with patience, I'd have found it terribly stressful because it's not something one can do without putting it away occasionally to just get on with life. I can finally work on my quilt and enjoy it immensely, for an hour or two, and walk away and close the door behind me. I was sixty when I made my first full sized quilt five years ago. You must be very young to think of fifty and aging bodies in the same thought. :-) I didn't retire until last spring, and was still hauling eighty pound bags of soil up to a waist high bench and planting thousands of pots and flats of flowers and putting in sixteen hour days on my feet when need be to meet deadlines. Then doing my housework and paperwork by lamplight after working on the house and making supper and tending my orchard and vegetable gardens. Fifties is prime of life!

"You must be very young to think of fifty and aging bodies in the same thought." LOL!

I didn't mean 50 as old! Although I do notice things like vision as being harder than they used to be. I was impressed by Marie Webster's success all coming after the age of 50. It is encouraging/inspiring. I am impressed with 80lb bags - I only have to occasionally carry in a bag of pellets (which is half the weight) when DH forgets.

I guess I've always thought of a lifetime of creative work as starting in the 20's or 30's. And I feel like I should be more creative/productive now with my kids grown, but I still work. So I was wondering if not working is the key, or if younger youth and vigor is or if it is different for every quilter.

I understand about the patience - that is why I machine quilt instead of hand quilt.

I have been cyber hanging around with a group of women of 'that certain age' for over fifteen years now, and we all agree women come into their full power on reaching cronehood. Sort of an inside joke, I guess. But, I believe it's true. We are not sprinters, but long-distance runners for the most part and are just reaching our stride as the stronger sex are hitting the "wall". When our kid raising is done, and our nests as we like them, I think it's perfectly natural for us to pull out those creative juices we have surpressed in (deferring to our other obligations) and put them to use. I started noticing the most powerful and ambitious women in our community were for the most part going grey, and had my Mama for a role model. She ran rings around me effortlessly when she was in her sixties and forever young in her spirit.

I think expressing your creative side does have different timeframes for different people, and some never seem to find it, sadly. But there are certainly a lot of famous people who have done their greatest work in their older years when unbridled from other obligations and acquiring the insights one gets with age. It's actually pretty inspiring to think about.

I started quilting when I was 50. I have sewn since I was a child and did lots of crafts before I was bitten by the quilting bug.I don't think I had the patience needed for quilting when I was younger.
I have also found that I no longer need to finish one project before starting a new one. That's not a good thing though! lol My goal for this year is to finish a lot of my UFOs.
Linda OH

This sounds crazy, but I think I was more productive when I was younger in the increments of time that I did something creative that I had. The only way I can describe it is, I was so busy working and keeping a family and household, when I did manage to escape to my little private world, usually at night or occasionally on a weekend afternoon, I worked like a fiend because my time with it was so precious and limited. It was also my only time to get my own "space" and do something for just me. Now it doesn't matter how much I get done with each session so I've become a lolly-gagger. I still don't like having unfinished projects lying around. I have a more relaxed attitude now to my projects. And I'm not as much of a perfectionist, either. If I mess up and it's not really noticeable, I don't spend a bunch of time trying to fix or hide it, as opposed to back when I would have been horrified to let anyone see a mistake.

I think that many of us start quilting after the child rearing is done. Being a mother, wife and sometimes working outside the home, takes a lot of time and energy.

I started quilting at age 44. I had never sewn before that.
At 44, I had to retire from my full time job for medical reasons. I still worked part time but my DH was working full time and my last child was in high school.
I was bored sitting at home alone and I had no hobbies.
For my 44th. birthday, I received a Quilt Almanac magazine and the rest, as they say, is history.
I made 8 quilts from that magazine. I couldn't afford a lot of fabric but begged and borrowed and bought from thrift stores.

Now that things are, financially, a bit easier, I buy more fabric but still look for store sales and garage/estate sales. I also make more scrap quilts because I have a lot of smaller leftover fabric pieces.

~Geraldine

I had been sewing since I was 12, and was deeply into making doll clothes, then my own clothes. After I got married, I sewed for my hubby & children and the house.

The sewing machine gathered much dust though, during my career days, and I was lucky if I had time for mending. I almost forgot how to iron too!

It wasn't until my second-to-last year of working, that I developed an interest in quilting. A friend of mine, (an art teacher in her 30's) was an avid quilter, and she made quilts for all retiring teachers. They were small wall hangings, with themes of each retiring person's interests. The backs of the quilts were signed by fellow employees. As the quilts circulated through the building for signing, I would take a good look at the workmanship, and was continuously impressed by the designs and piecing.

This same art teacher's daughter was selling magazine subscriptions as a school fund raiser, and I ordered a one year subscription to McCall's Quick Quilts. Well, my interest grew as I browsed through those mag's, and by the time I retired two years later, I was ready to dive right in!

How that art teacher had time to quilt, raise a family, and work full time is beyond me, but where there's a desire, there's a way!

For me though, I wouldn't have been able to work full time and learn how to quilt at the same time. I need time, especially to think about designs and colors to start a project, and I needed to carve out a quilting space in my home. So, as many of you have already expressed, my productivity didn't start until my "senior" years...AFTER 62!!!

And as an ending note, it is such a blessing to be able to quilt w/o being distracted or burdened by other obligations. Housework can wait an hour or two, or a day or two:)

Julie

I started quilting seriously at the age of 38, around 20 years ago. I had done a couple before that but only for a friend's baby.

I work full time, maintain a decent garden and do a reasonable job of taking care of my family including 2 dogs and 3 cats. However, I am NOT a great housekeeper; you can't be good at everything, you know!

I think my productivity has increased as my skills have increased, but what really made the difference for me was having a space to use as a sewing room. It's pretty hard to be productive if you have to haul out your machine to sew for a while then put it away before dinner so the family can use the kitchen table!

When I'm retired (who knows when that will be) I'm hoping to do a lot of RV travel and I'll take my featherweight along. I have no idea if I'll be a more productive quilter then or if I'll have too many other distractions.

Well, I'm not really in the age category that you're speaking/questioning, but here are my thoughts as they pertain to me.

I'm 44, married, running a house and 4 kids, and homeschooling. With that said, I consider myself pretty darn productive. Why? Because if I didn't do something I love, for myself, every once in awhile, I'd go crazy and not do my other jobs very well. How? Whenever I can fit it in.

I have found that I work well under pressure (for most things not just quilting) so if that holds true, then after the kids are grown/gone I'm much less likely to get things accomplished! LOL This, then, might be considered my most productive time! We'll just have to wait and see, won't we???

I began sewing in my teen years and have done something creative every since. I didn't begin quilting until I was 45 and took a course at the Home extention service. I stated slow but finally decided I enjoyed that more the knitting, crochet, etc. so put them aside and in my late 50's and 60's I had a sm. craft business, mostly sm. quilts, pictures, wallhangings and selling at craft shows. Perhaps I was more productive then but I have made more large items since the business became less interesting about 20 years, ago a few years before I retired.
I am a nite person so did many of my creations in the evenings and into the nite. Didn't do a lot of sleeping.
I am not sure age had much to do with any of it but more changing interest and need.

My grandmother taught me how to knit and crochet when I was about 5, and I made several sweaters during my teen years. In my early twenties, with a husband, house and two kids, I started sewing - curtains, kids' clothes, my clothes - and this continued for a few years. I started working full time at about 25 and have been at it since then. I'm 67 now. Periodically through the years, I would fall into fits of embroidery (remember the 70's?), knitting, crocheting, etc., but nothing ever "grabbed" me the way quilting did (except sailing and hostas, but that's another story or two). I bought the fabric and tools to make a tree skirt about 5 years ago, but I had so much trouble with my sewing machine that I put it all aside until late last summer when a friend inspired me to buy a new machine and start quilting in earnest. I have been at it ever since. I've completed five quilts, two more quilt tops, the tree skirt, four placemats and two table runners. I can't wait until I retire, so I can spend more time at it. I'm working until 70, so that's two and a half years yet. So many quilts; so little time.

It amazes me when I hear someone say they are bored. Or that they won't retire because they have nothing to do! I have so many things going on, there just aren't enough hours in the day :-) I'm starting a vegetable garden for the first time this year. I'm not sure how successful we will be, but it's been a good learning experience for the kids and I'm having a good time. Definitely looking forward to some wonderful summer vegetables!! Somehow I manage to squeeze in some quilting, but not near as much as I'd like to. Unfortunately we didn't even come close to winning the lottery last weekend, so I'm back to work today and have limited time for my sewing.

"We are not sprinters, but long-distance runners"

I like that! I also do better under pressure because it forces me to be more organized/deliberate. But I hope that as I age I am becoming more disciplined.

I remember when my grandmother stopped doing any hobbies. She was a driven women and always had to be doing something so she crocheted and sewed. But sometime in her late 60's/early 70's she decided she was done and gave all her supplies away. My mom did the same thing around 65. She just decided she was too old and gave away all of her fabrics and packed her machine away. I know there were some health issues for her at the time, but in the last decade she has had relatively good health and still has not gone back and started any hobbies again. The only one she has kept is reading. I guess that is why Marie Webster (born 1859, started designing quilt patterns in her 50's) and Grandma Moses (born 1860, 'discovered' at age 78) are so inspiring to me. It gives me a different perspective to look at.

In my 20's, with a husband that acted like he was single, I bought my first quilt book. No one in my family quilted, crocheted, or knitted.

The instructions to make the quilts back then were not as detailed as they are today and it was over my head. I still have someof those old books and as much as I have quilted some of the patterns still puzzle me.

I bought 2 white sheets and batting. Took me 3 years to finish my quilt and I entered it in the fair. I won a red ribbon and I was in my 40's before I knew I had made a 'whole cloth quilt' lol.

Hobbies are expensive and I was a struggling single parent. I made a few quilts over the years, but, after retiring at 52 I started learning how to piece tops. I still prefer hand quilting, but it does take so much longer.

I have a large family and I still crochet afghans for them. I taught myself to knit last year and I make prayer shawls.

My husband tells me I have to always be doing something, I knit or crochet while he drives, and I knit or crochet while watching TV with him at night.

Quilting is still my passion along with gardening. I am now 59 and I don't see myself slowing down, but I can tell a differnce in my hands.

I love any kind of crafts and a lady I met at the gym makes bowls from pine straw. THAT'S ON MY LIST LOL!!!!!
Rosa

I forgot to mention that while I did the things I posted I also worked full time as an OR nurse who took call and often added many more hours to her service. It didn't keep me from making things but just kept the pressure up.
I also used "sit-down" time to do my heirloom sewing which I also love but have little call for.