Why Quilting?? This craft started so many years ago, that the beginning was hardly known, and crafting with the hands is having a resurgance in family homes today, with fun being had by yourself or with friends joining in afternoon teas and lots of laughs as you play with colours and fabrics, threads of all manner making ptchwork quilts.
And as we age we need to keep busy, keeping our minds active, reading, crosswords, learning a new skill if possible and it is wonderful to be able to keep creating things, but more so to be able to teach another generation of women simple ways to create basically something out of not much, especially scraps you have in your boxes tucked away. Usually we find as we delve into a new project we come up with new and nifty ideas, and more especially if there are a few minds at work sorting out shapes and colours for the new quilt. Sometimes we find out we have more flair and imagination than we gave ourselves credit for, and making patchwork quilts may possibly be the stimulation and creativity you were hoping to find.
For crafters, amongst all that activity there is a gentle settling of the mind into rhythm, order, calm and satifaction and a transformation of raw material into an object that goes on giving for a long time afterwards.
Any passionate crafter will tell you that the pleasure in quilting as a hobby doesn’t stop in the process of creation or the joy of completion, it is in the gathering of materials, in planning the next project, in adding to the stash, finding that perfect fabric to edge your quilt, or an embellishment you know will be perfect for another scrapbooking adventure. It is a beautiful thing the pursuit of craft – wonderfully and wholly addictive with long lasting benefits for the soul.
The hardest thing of all when you get on a roll is to know when to stop and do the more mundane things like getting dinner ready for the starving troops. It is just perfect if you are fortunate enough (like I am) to have a spare room where I do all my sewing etc, and am able to just walk away …. until next time.