B Quilts

I am not a patient person, nor would I claim to be detail oriented, and yet, I love quilting. It really doesn’t make sense, it’s an insane craft, but I’m obsessed and it brings me so much joy.

I’ve been quilting for about a decade. I was in my mid-twenties and my mother bought me a sewing machine and I saw a collection of “punk rock” quilts on a blog that forever changed how I thought about this art form. I bought a book called “Dare to be Square”, over-estimated my skills, cut into fabric with a pair of scissors and made my first quilt: a skull.

Since then, quilting has been part of my life. Through moves, marriage, the birth of my children, depression, the loss of loved ones and a number of anxiety-inducing world events, I’ve quilted. I started to make my own patterns and experiment. I played with new textures and techniques and began to hand quilt more and more.

When the world locked down, we were home, working full time, with our 1 year old and 3 year old. Like so many, this was the hardest thing I had ever done and I felt like I was failing at everything at the same time. To cope, I began waking up at 5am when the world would still be quiet and calm. I used that time to make quilts. It kept my hands busy so I couldn’t doom scroll through tweets and news sites. It helped me mark the time as I progressed through projects. It gave me comfort.

There is something healing about quilting. It’s a meditative process that requires my focus, but eases my mind as I work through repetitive tasks like cutting, piecing and quilting. Each part of the quilting process has a rhythm that I can fall into.

This craft teaches me patience. That even working on seemingly simple tasks over and over, can with time, create something complex and beautiful.

During this pandemic, one of my best friends had her first baby, and I haven’t been able to hold her. So, I made her a baby quilt and gave it to her. In a way, I get to wrap that baby in my love. It’s saccharine, I know, but this helps when I can’t be there in the ways I wish I could.

I love that my creative outlet can be used in our day to day lives. My quilts have been picnic blankets, forts, capes and yes blankets to cuddle and sleep under. I spend dozens of hours quilting, but create something beautiful and useful. Once complete, quilts seem to take on a life of their own. My quilts get sent out into the world with love. A piece of me goes with them as they become a part of other people’s lives. My hope is that some become heirlooms and continue their journeys long after I am gone.

I’m still surprised that this craft brings me so much joy. Why do I spend hours cutting fabric into pieces only to spend hours putting them back together again? But somehow, there is joy in stitching those pieces into something new, beautiful and soft. When my world feels scattered, I turn to quilting. It reminds me to just keep moving forward with the hope that this chaos will resolve itself into something beautiful in the end.

I’ll keep quilting as long as I’m able. I want to keep getting better at my craft and proudly send pieces of my soul into the world. I want to add to the heritage of the women who came before me. Perhaps one day I’ll make a quilt that inspires someone else to take out that sewing machine that their mom gave them, over-estimate their skills, and make their first quilt.