This is an article about a craft in which I became interested by chance (if there is such a thing) and which changed the way I spent my leisure time ever afterwards.
 This craft showed me the way to many different offshoots, and eventually led me to set up my own business, selling my own designs.
Patchwork is often thought of as an American craft, but in fact the American pioneer women took their patchwork with them from their home countries, especially England.
 Much patchwork consists of geometric designs made up in cotton fabrics, but there are other types such as crazy patchwork, which is irregular shapes made up in satins, velvets and other fancy fabrics, and appliqué, which literally means applied work, where a shape, such as an apple or teddy bear made up of one fabric is applied or sewn to another fabric.
When I first became interested in patchwork and quilting some years ago, I didn't know much about it.
 Actually, I knew nothing.
 Even though I had been sewing most of my life, I had never tackled patchwork and quilting, or even thought about them.
 They were something that was done in America, I thought.
So when I was running a crèche which was attached to a Community House, I was merely interested when mothers collecting their children had half-finished quilts in their enormous bags.
 Apparently one of the classes being held was Patchwork and Quilting.
After I walked down the hall to take a look at the class, talked to participants, and - most of all - touched the quilts, I was hooked.
 As I was working in the crèche, I couldn't go to the class, so I went to the newsagents, bought a magazine and wanted to dive straight in.
 I've always been able to learn practical skills from reading about them.
But what was all this? I had to decide which type of quilt first.
 Pieced patchwork, crazy patchwork, appliqué.
 Wholecloth quilts.
 Geometric designs - scary, all that measuring; numbers have never been my strength.
 Applique - easier, more margin for error, but can I draw, or am I doomed to trace somebody else's designs, which are never quite what I want.
 Crazy patchwork - love the look, but all those raw edges - what if they fray.
The batting - which I'd never even heard of before - all these different types! Cotton, wool, polyester, innumerable blends of these - one book says natural only; another says use any - yes, I quickly resorted to the public library and took home a stack of books on all aspects of patchwork and quilting.
And the quilting itself - apparently you either had to quickly master tiny running stitches (running stitches, like we learned at our mother's knee - or was it in primary school) - sounds too simple, yet every book tells the same story here.
 Oh yes, or you can machine-quilt.
 Now we're back to choices.
 Use a walking foot (huh?) or a darning foot for free-motion quilting - sounds a bit professional for a beginner ...
Yes, you've guessed it.
 I eventually tackled everything I've mentioned and more besides.
 I'm better at some things than at others of course, but I'm quite good at most.
 It's taken some years of practice and a great deal of pleasure, but I can say that I'm a quilter ...
amongst other textile crafts ...
but that's another story.