teaching??

My husband and I purchased a house in Late October of last year. With the winter, all of our neighbors were in hiding from the snow and cold. Recently, Spring has come out to greet us and the neighborhood is back in full swing.

Yesterday, our neighbors were having a cookout and invited us over to spend some time. Sitting there, my one neighbor noticed my new tattoo (pictures to come) and commented how much she liked it. My tattoo is a bird (sailor jerry style) holding a piece of thread with a needle on it and the spool falling down. I thanked her and then she asked if I sew. I said I did and then she asked what I sew. Well, this is somewhat of a difficult question to answer, since I do a lot of sewing, but said that I am currently really into quilting, which is true.

My neighbor got very excited and said, "I would love to learn how to quilt. Could you show me?" I said I could. Only twice have I shown someone how to sew. The first was my sister and she tried it once and gave up. The second was my husband who, after the lesson, stated "this is more difficult than it seems." Sewing seems like such an easy task to me since I have been doing it since I was 10... Which makes me wonder if it's me who can't teach?

Oddly enough, my job requires me to teach adults how to use computer software and then re-teach them when they've forgotten something. I seem to do that well since I have many clients tell me how much they appreciate me. So what am I doing wrong when it comes to sewing? Something I hold so dear to my heart?

I think in the next couple of weeks I am going to re-evaluate my past "sewing lessons" and see if I can't come up with a program I could give my neighbor to help her learn how to sew and learn to love it as much as I do.