I was blessed with a Swiss Grandma who's mother owned a shop that made fine lace and did fine sewing of ladies undergarments. Grandma came to the USA at age 17. She never worked as a seamstress again, but made sure all of her 6 children could sew, knit, darn,iron and cook. Being the oldest granddaughter I was eager to learn from my beloved Grandma. I can remember we started out hand sewing, cross- stitching my name on gingham, then doing stitches so fine you couldn't see them. Each stitch practiced over and over until the sample met with her approval. When Grandma passed the only thing I wanted was her old Singer sewing machine. I knew Grandma rarely threw anything away including small leftover scraps from her dresses as she could sew a "new" piece in a torn or ripped dress. The sewing machine came to me with all these small scraps carefully rolled and pinned or with an elastic. One of the rolls was a pink gingham with more fine linen scraps with all of my fine hand stitched samples. They all are now a small quilt hanging over my sewing machine. When my Dad first noticed the quilt he looked very puzzled and turned to me asking where I got the scraps from his mother's dresses to make it. I told him they came in the drawers of the sewing machine and in the center is my cross-stitched name. Valuable to me beyond words are the skills I learned from my beloved Grandma. I hope to be able to pass some of my knowledge to my granddaughter some day.