what is your why? 10 reasons to Quilt

I have spent some time in the company of quilters – online for the most part, due to my isolation in physical terms from the majority of quilters who are based in the US. I was lucky to come across a small group of highly dedicated improv quilters here in Italy, and have been in contact with them virtually. I talked a bit more about the importance of community in this journal entry as well and how to feel part of a quilting community even if you are not physically in the same place.

the surprising reasons why people quilt

All this to say… In the company of quilters, the most surprising things come up as reasons for quilting. Deep, soul connected reasons. The ‘what is your why’ type of reasons.
So, why quilting? Why do people start quilting? How do you get started quilting?

explaining your why

On a recent workshop, I heard quilters talk about all sorts of whys. Quilting to survive the adoption process, quilting to ‘keep me sane’, quilting to create legacy for their grandkids, quilting as therapy, quilting as ‘a gift to myself after completing my masters in nursing’.

Of course there are also the people who have been sewing all their lives, who learnt how to quilt as a child from someone in their family or a close friend. And I am sure there are many many more stories of how and why people began to quilt.

my why

My personal quilt story is probably one of the more common ones: I was going to have a baby, and I wanted to make a quilt.

Having grown up pushing the mechanical pedal of my mum’s singer sewing table (she used the table not the actual machine), sorting her buttons, playing with fabrics and watching her spend winter nights hand quilting on a hoop, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me that I wanted to make a quilt. Yet, it was probably still a little unusual for me to want to quilt, given I was an engineer used to working offshore on oil-rigs.

first time for everything

The first quilt I made was an applique quilt, though at the time I didn’t know it was called applique. I used this super puffy synthetic batting – the first one I could find – I didn’t even know there were different kinds of batting – and I think it was on sale. I followed the free instructions in a free booklet from Spotlight (Australia’s equivalent of Joann’s). The puffiness was the bane of my existence! So hard to quilt such a thick puffy batting! Yikes!

Here’s the result. It’s well loved and I even made a similar one for my nephew as well (which is even MORE well loved, washed and worn).

my second quilt►

for my nephew

◄my first quilt

for my daughter

Do I love these quilts aesthetically? Not really. But they do hold some memories for me- All the fabrics have a story, some personal connection.

some low-lights:

Unpicking all the stitching on the pre-quilted quilt sandwich I bought which was the only way I could get the candy stripe red fabric I HAD to have for the binding. And yes, quilting that puffy batting – ergh!

some highlights:

The green fabric with the crickets on comes from some old boxer shorts I bought when I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma for a while – and I also gave a pair to my best mate Benny. The blue spotted pieces are a chambray denim fabric I made a dress out of. The red comes from serviettes I made that we still use everyday. The white pique fabric was eventually the same kind from the same store that I used in traces.

So, the connections are all there. As are the beginnings of my love of using whatever fabric – thrifted, scraps, leftovers from other projects. In fact, I didn’t buy any actual ‘quilting fabric’ until about 3 years into my quilt making journey and I only bought my first Kona cotton last year (when I became a certified Patchwork Victim).

Anyway, I made a quilt for my new baby. Then, after the hiatus brought about by looking after a small human and all the busyness that that phase of life brings, I jumped back into quilting, this time making quilts for other peoples babies.

This was prompted by the receipt of a gift all the way from Australia of a hand made baby quilt for the arrival of my first daughter. This special quilt was made by Robyn, the mum of one of my university friends. This gift triggered a very deep connection with quilting that had started when I was a child watching my mum sew and quilt.

It made me really revisit quilting as a means of creating an heirloom, a legacy, a connection. Honouring those new arrivals in people’s lives, near and far. I have made baby quilts for friends in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Italy…

so, that is part of my why

Creating a connection, crafting, sewing and gifting a hand made object to someone unborn, to new parents, to reforge connection lost across distance.

As a way to pay forward that generosity and welling up of comfort and joy and happiness that I felt receiving a gift made by someone else’s hands.

what is my why now

My why has shifted in the past few years to be more about artistic expression. I have chosen textiles (or have they chosen me?) as my primary medium for creating. So, now my why looks a bit more like quilting as a creative outlet, deepening my design practice, honing my craft and my skills as a maker and a designer. This is something that I also love to teach.

find your why

What are some of the other ‘whys’ of quilting? I alluded to a few at the beginning of this journal entry.

So here is a (non-exhaustive) list of some of the whys of quilting – maybe you’ll find your why amongst these too:

10 reasons to quilt

find out who you are and do it on purpose

Can you relate to one of these why’s in particular? Do you think it might inform who you are? What would happen if you decided to purposefully define your why and use that as a north star to navigate by? How would that shape your creativity?

I want to explore some of these whys in more depth in some upcoming journal entries, so check back or stay tuned to my weekly newsletter as I expand on these.

For now, I’d love to know, what is your why? Why do you quilt? Leave a comment below – you might be surprised by finding others who share your story too.