Hidden Threads

So, you’ve been interested in quilting for a while, tried some piecing, and have an odd assortment of tools in a drawer in the guest bedroom, right?

Do you find yourself thinking about fabric at odd moments – when you’re washing your hair, at stoplights, when your husband is describing the new route he takes to work? Are you beginning to think of the months ahead as markers for how many projects you can finish? You know, the pumpkin quilt you want completed by September, the snowman quilt you’d love to finish by Thanksgiving if you can find good snowflake fabric, the town square quilt you are planning around some great building-material fabrics you picked up on sale.

You Are a Quilter

Well you, my friend, have become a quilter, a fabric crafter, a fiber artist. It doesn’t matter that you failed art in school, can’t hem your husband’s Dockers, and don’t have any interest in making living room curtains. Fabric is your medium, and you are now sharing the cosmic creative space with the greats.

The Process of Quilting is its Own Reward

You may never have an entry in a show, but all those antique quilts in major museums don’t lie. This is art. I bet you never thought you’d be involved with a visual medium, or that something so traditional it’s often considered dowdy by the uninitiated could consume so much of your creative energy – or that you had so much creative energy to offer.

My Creative Story

When I was a kid, I wanted an aquarium. I pined for it and fantasized about it, but my family couldn’t afford that kind of luxury item. As an adult, I never thought that I would feel the sense of longing or passionate attention ever again that I felt for that aquarium. But here I am, as consumed with the idea of putting thread to fabric as I was with the potential of creating a world in glass when I was ten.

Sometimes I think the elements that sparked my interest in these two very different hobbies aren’t so different: color, texture, attention to detail; understanding space and some basic physical laws, respecting nature, being consistent, realizing a vision. But that’s my situation; I’ll leave you to ponder yours.

One thing I will say, though; my world seems to hold more possibilities now than it did before I brought the sewing machine in from the garage, and a little fabric and some house-space doesn’t seem like too high a price to pay for that. Not by a long shot.

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