I'm glad you see my motivation for tackling this project, Cathy.

The last two largish quilts I worked on did not "spark joy" (to quote the famous Marie whatshername who has people cleaning out their closets).  I made one small wallhanging that was fun to work on; it was a kit but frankly there are not many appealing kits out there that ring my chimes.

So when my fevered brain took me down the path to this idea I pounced on it ...could I make an autobiographical quilt with blocks that reflected my history? 

Why not give it a whirl?  Making my own rules as I go along. I think it is Suze that has said, "Your quilt, your rules".  (Or maybe it is Ami.)

Pieced blocks only

No applique.

No photos.

Bingo!  Your quilt/your rules!

Absolutely!

Likely Suze said "Your quilt, your rules." I wholeheartedly agree!

Sounds like fun to me.  It would be a good challenge project.  I'm not sure  possess the creativity required but I may try it.  It's on the list.  

Did you teach school at one time. or am I remembering incorrectly?  There are lots of schoolhouse blocks out there.

Yes, I taught fifth grade while putting DH through medical school. Don't have many happy memories of those days (huge number of kids, loony principal and I finally quit in desperation) but thank you for reminding me of a useful block.

Left teaching to become a COBOL programmer ... wonder if there's such a thing as a punchcard block?  LOL

I think that any quilter who has lived enough decades and moved around enough could come up with pieced blocks or applique ideas to make a fun personalized quilt. Think of it as a type of T-shirt quilt without the T-shirts.

(I'm throwing in the applique idea for those who are braver and more talented than I am.)

judyinohio said:

Left teaching to become a COBOL programmer

I don't think I knew that!   When I was gainfully employed and had a paid profession, that's what I did ... a COBOL programmer.  And yes, I started with punch cards, too.   Hollerith cards, to be precise.  :-)

The Sisterhood of the Coders! me too... I taught FORTRAN for a while..that was fun. We still had a COBOL program or two around up until a few years ago. Thankfully it did not need much fixin' since no one could remember how to after a while! It would take a whole day to get back into the swing.

My experience with punch cards was at a lower level than COBOL - a basic assembly called CCBAL...but it was the only time I wrote a program, punched a program, ran the program and turned in the results and had no recursion.. been looking to repeat that for 40 something years!

Suze and Shelley, we are really dating ourselves .....

Not too long ago my DH showed me an article in the Wall Street Journal about the state of Connecticut needing a COBOL programmer to fix something for them because they were still using that system in the depths of a state basement to run a program for their highway department.

DH jokingly said I could fly out to Connecticut and get a part-time job ...

Told him that the very idea gave me the heebie-jeebies.