{"id":253,"date":"2013-03-13T06:59:21","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T10:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/50.87.217.193\/blog\/why-do-we-make-quilts"},"modified":"2015-03-07T00:08:38","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T00:08:38","slug":"why-do-we-make-quilts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/why-do-we-make-quilts\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do we make quilts?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"Imagine1_550\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Why do we make quilts?<\/p>\n

The
\nreason has evolved as women have evolved in society. This practical craft of
\nrecycling clothing scraps to make warm blankets, has a history around the world
\nfrom America to Japan
\nand beyond<\/a>, because fabric is precious and we hate to throw away something
\nthat can be reworked into something useful or beautiful.<\/p>\n

Most women have
\nforgotten what the Suffragettes<\/a> went through to
\nwin the right for women to vote. That was one stepping stone as women began to
\ndream about having their own careers, and throughout the Twentieth Century we
\nremade the idea of what it means to be a woman in the world. <\/p>\n

Today our
\ndaughters grow up in a world where equality is often taken for granted, even
\nthough there are plenty
\nof women around the world<\/a> who still don't have the rights that our girls and
\nyoung women assume are here for the taking. <\/p>\n

I've been thinking about how
\nquilting has evolved along with feminism. It has changed along with us – from a
\nnecessity to something that could be perceived as a luxury. (Buying fabrics and
\ncollecting a stash, making creative and artistic quilts, instead of using scraps
\nfor a patchwork blanket to keep out the cold.)<\/p>\n

Sheryl Sandberg is on the
\ncover of Time
\nMagazine<\/a> this week, and her
\nbook excerpt discusses how success can equal unlikability for women<\/a>, and
\nalso how many women are still trying to achieve the impossible goal of " having it
\nall<\/a>". No matter how hard we try, we often will feel like we are missing out
\non something. It is difficult to feel completely content with our lives, no
\nmatter how much we accomplish, and no matter how much we try to let go and just
\nBE.<\/p>\n

Quilting helps us with this conundrum. When a sister has breast
\ncancer and we feel helpless, we make her a beautiful healing quilt. When friends
\nsuffer a terrible loss, we make comfort quilts to remind them of our love and
\nsupport. When a community suffers a trauma
\nsuch as Hurricane Sandy<\/a>, the larger community comes together to send quilt
\nrelief… the equivalent of a group hug.<\/p>\n

Life is messy, and much of it is
\nout of our control, but when you make a quilt you have time to sort it all out
\nin your head, and by the time your healing quilt is finished, you've received a
\nhealing in the process of making the quilt. As women's confidence and freedom
\nhas progressed, we have given ourselves permission to use quilting and sewing as
\nArt Therapy. Instead of feeling guilty about making art, we embrace the process
\nas a journey of self discovery.<\/p>\n

Many years ago I heard a statistic about
\nhow many corporate women were turning to crafts for stress relief. Quilting,
\nsewing, painting, knitting, crocheting and other arts and crafts have been
\nembraced by a new generation of working women, as they discover what so many
\nmature quilters knew already. <\/p>\n

When you make something for someone who is
\nhurting, it heals your own heart.<\/p>\n

When you make something beautiful, it
\nreveals the beauty of your own soul.<\/p>\n

**
\nThis image above is a detail of the quilt "Imagine" from the Tokyo
\nQuilt Festival<\/a> in January 2013.<\/p>\n

* SAQA<\/a> & Andover Fabrics<\/a> Call for Entries<\/a> *<\/p>\n

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Why do we make quilts? The reason has evolved as women have evolved in society. This practical craft of recycling clothing scraps to make warm blankets, has a history around the world from America to Japan and beyond, because fabric … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan","category-quilts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1210,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/1210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}