Quilting

My great-grandma stitched this quilt before I was born. My grandma said they would save up old coats, then cut them into squares, piece them, back them with flannel and pull the yarn ties through.

This all took place through long winters out on a farm in southwestern Minnesota, not far from St. James. One house to every 80 acres or so. There was more time than money (more cold and snow back then too) so this was how people passed the time.

What explains the continued popularity of quilting is harder to figure out. This site will connect you with 49 quilter guilds in the area, and I’m sure that accounts for only a fraction of the women (mostly women) who gather in homes or church basements to sew up their creations.

The financial incentives were shipped off to Asia long ago. So it makes you wonder whether some folks simply have to tinker and make stuff. If they don’t do it for money, they’ll do it for distraction as it brings them joy.

You have to have space for such things like workshops and studios. And if your tinkering is on metal and wood you’ll require a garage with a heater mounted from the ceiling in the corner. Did all those spaces where people bend metal and pound on things get shipped off too, eliminating a creative environment? Have we stop creating new better things for lack of workshops?