That Quilting Thing

Since childhood, my hands have always kept busy with things artistic, usually a pen. I created with calligraphy (in two directions, if you please), book-binding, paper-cutting - all gave me great pleasure, both in allowing the creative spirit to move me, and in the satisfaction of producing things of beauty.

But in quilting, I have found a therapy that moves at my speed. (Friends, quit laughing right now.) (I am known for projects that take upwards of 5 years to complete. Small projects.)

Quilters famously have UFO's (UnFinished Objects), the result of dropping one project for a more urgent one. More urgent, perhaps, for emotional reasons: a friend who lives far away needs a hug, so you set aside your current project to sew her a quilt and send it to her to do your hugging for you.

Or more urgent, perhaps, because you just found this Kaffe Fassett fabric, and you are forced to go shopping (oh dear, again? Sigh. Well, if I must.) to find fabrics that contrast, but perfectly... And there's a different kind of urgent, right there.

I got turned onto quilting by a book, "Quilting Lessons" by Janet Berlo. This is not a how-to book; this is all about what the writer learned from quilting. Janet Berlo is a professor who was struck by writer's block at around age 40 and sunk into a deep depression as a result. This book contains the essays that she wrote in the subsequent two years, during which she quilted full time, through and out of her depression. The essays reflect her moods, often dark and self-absorbed, and describe her relationships, good and bad. What I found so compelling was that in quilting she found - she created - her own healing space.