Why Quilts And Not Blankets I???

Posted by: Anjum on: August 9, 2010

• In: Patchwork | Women
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I wonder why at all I quilt. And why most of all anybody quilt. It is a craft since the man knows his history. We see quilted items even in mummy tombs. We see them in Roman era artefacts and we see them in today’s modern world where needle craft is nearly murdered by machines and media. Machines, we understand and blame it for the demise of all crafts, but media we don’t suspect, whereas it has more active part in the vanishing of handicraft.

Now a days young and old don’t have time for any handicraft. Why? Because they spend that time on computer and more so watching TV and the most so they are busy on blueberry mobiles equipped with all sorts of latest features.

So what’s the problem with all the quilters? Do they live in primitive era? They don’t have access to new lifestyle, or they just can’t use them. Why we spend hours ‘n’ hours on quilting? Why don’t we simply use a blanket? It is readily available, it is soft, it is less expensive and it needs no physical and mental burden.

I searched the whole web on the net and could not find any blog or web or any other source to pinpoint any reason on this topic. I felt it is abnormal or rather criminal to waste time and money on this hobby. That’s why nobody mentioned anything about it. Maybe it’s a hush topic, or maybe it is not at all a topic to discus.

So I searched my soul. Why at all I quilt? And since the first day I took needle in my hand, I am virtually unable to put it down, Why? For me it is not a question at all. I have to quilt. I have to think, plan and be constantly in the process of making a quilt. It’s as natural as blinking an eye or my heart pumping blood. I can’t think of any other way of life.

But people around me find it weird and when they cant figure it out they just move on by saying , ‘oh , dear it’s very hard work and how do you do it?’  They love the work, and find it lovely and in the end when they can’t put it in any frame that they can call; very interesting.

But I am not insane or out of this modern tech age. I spend really hours in the morning and at night to search for new patterns, to see what quilt resource companies have and to see what other quilters in the world are doing. I take inspirations from art quilter and from simple quilters alike and my belief strengthens that I am not alone in this vast sea of fabrics. There is in fact rush and traffic jam.

So why people in the West quilt? They are supposed to be like machines, busy 9 to 5, working hard to meet both ends meet. They are not people like us here in Pakistan. We have household help. We have joint family, and we have less stress of running a household as far as finances are concerned.

There is some myth or talisman (magic) about this art form that grips West and East alike without any barrier of age location or time span. I tried to find others view about it. Those who do it can’t do without it, and those who don’t do it can’t stand it for its labour involved in making a quilt.

I remembered once my friend phoned and my son attended. That aunty asked him; what’s your mother doing? He said without a pause; “Aunti something is very wrong with my mother. She buys logs of fabrics, brings them home and starts cutting them. But the worst part is that she sits on the machine and starts stitching them into the whole cloth again”.

Well that’s the simplest definition any child can do. Even my husband who loves this art and encourages all the time throughout my life likes to go shopping with me for fabrics and at times comments that all this hardship can be avoided if this design is printed on fabric by fabric companies. And we do find a lot of quilt designs printed on nice fabrics. It can be used as it is or can be machined quilted as fake quilt. Now China has done all these processes one by one in their quilts and these are very cheap to buy.

So the vital question remains unanswered. Why when we can use this time in other money generating activities? We can buy cheap Chinese quilts, we can buy blankets, and we can do without them if we choose. So why we make quilts?

It’s like any other Nature’s mystery. I will again search the web; my best friend and see what I can find and will share it in my next article because I have a new quilt project sitting on my cutting board by my computer side and I can’t avoid that call. It’s going to be a tulip lone star all in vibrant sun orange and olive greens like all the summer colours of my land. 

Tags: blankets, cloth, companies, east, fabric, handicraft, machines, magic, media, needle, quilts, search, topic, web, west