Why make quilts? We do not ask to offend enthusiasts. As a retailer of quilting supplies, we can think of plenty of reasons why someone would take up this hobby. We only bring it up because quite a few people have a mild interest in the activity, but may wonder if it is worth their time.
Call us biased — again, we sell quilting supplies — but the act of quilting offers plenty of benefits. We do not simply mean health benefits, although it can serve as nice exercise for your hands and brain. This blog post highlights eight of many possible pluses to the pastime.
Making Something Lasting
When you play sports for recreation, you usually only take away memories. If cooking is your preferred pastime, what you make soon vanishes, leaving only crumbs. Quilting is different. The result of your toil is a tangible, physical object. With proper care and love, one evening’s work can last beyond your lifetime.
Moreover, multiple people can build on a quilting project over time. For example, some families pass the same sheet across generations as an heirloom, contributing their own patches to the work. Nothing you do needs to be permanent or shared, of course. Still, the possibility is there.
A Hobby You Can Share
Speaking of sharing, quilting can be a great group activity. It does not matter if everyone contributes to a single sheet or works on their own projects. Just being together with people who share the same interest can be a highlight of one’s week or month. You can probably find quite a few quilting clubs in your area.
If you do not know anyone with these skills, you can still share the joys of this activity with them in other ways. Quilts can make for amazing gifts. Their design can be totally unique and personalized to the recipient. They are not just something you can get at the store, but something you made with your own two hands and your love.
Stress Relief
Quilting is also something you can just do for your own sake. In our experience, it can serve as a great form of stress relief. The repetitive motions let your body and mind settle into a comfortable groove. At the same time, the creativity involved gives you something to focus on besides your worries.
Your quilting may even offer a means to process your emotions in troubling times. The next time you feel anxious or angry, pick up your quilting supplies. Do not even enter with a final design in mind. Just go where your whims take you. By the time you finish, you may feel like you got something out of your system, if only for the moment.
Analog-Based Activity
Modern technology is often a source of stress for many. We are not here to say that the internet and social media are pure evil. After all, quilting enthusiasts can meet online and get quilting supplies from web-based stores like ours. Still, you surely know what we mean when we say that a break from doomscrolling can be welcome.
That leads to the next benefit of quilting: it takes you away from your computer and smartphone for a while. Your hands cannot tap and scroll if they are busy working with fabric. When the digital world feels like too much yet not enough, unplug for a while with this analog-based hobby.
Creative Stimulation
Quilting is an art. The fabric may be both your canvas and your colors, and your needle can be the brush that brings the design to life. With that said, quilting is not a one-to-one match with painting, nor sculpting or filmmaking or any other form. It is its own medium, one whose quirks and qualities you can explore and exploit as you desire.
We believe that everyone gravitates toward one artistic pursuit or another. Quilting can and does scratch that itch for many people, stimulating their creative side. The process can be frustrating, but the effort and the results can be so satisfying. If you give it a try, you can see whether it matches your fancy.
Self-Expression
As with any art form, quilting may be an excellent means of expressing yourself. We touched on this notion while discussing stress relief, but it goes beyond capturing troubled emotions. Quilts can be full of joy, grief, ugliness, and beauty, all in the same patchwork.
That patchwork nature also allows for extraordinary comprehensiveness, especially compared to other expressive mediums. Imagine a quilt with all your disparate hobbies and interests and fancies, or one with squares and sheets representing all your friends and family. Like writer Jorge Luis Borges’s man who “sets out to draw the world,” you may find that the final design depicts yourself.
The Fun of It
Why make quilts? Why do anything, ever? We only get one life. We do not need to spend every minute of it doing whatever we or others consider “something practical.” When we do elect to devote time toward something impractical, we do not need to justify this decision.
If quilting makes you happy, that is all the reason you need to take up the practice and keep doing it. All the other benefits we listed are real. If they encourage someone to give it a whirl, then we are content. Just remember also that the joy of quilting is its own benefit.
High-Quality Quilting Supplies for Your Benefit
Quilting may encompass far more joys than this article can describe. These are only seven of many great reasons to at least try out the activity. As you practice and create, you may find a few benefits that are unique to you and just as valid as the ones highlighted here.
To experience any benefits from quilting, though, you will first need some quilting supplies. Hingeley Road Quilt Shop is home to a vast variety of top-notch fabrics with gorgeous designs. To give one example, we offer over 250 different designs just based on gnomes. Whether you enjoy these folkloric figures or prefer Northwoods wildlife flannel fabric or anything else, we can enhance your quilting experience.