A ceramic friend of mine dragged me (quite willingly) to a quilt shop recently and while I waited for her to choose which materials she wanted, I was drawn to a quilt that was hanging on the wall. It was a beautiful pattern and made in such soft material. I am not a sewer and tried to talk myself out of buying the kit (that included the squares and border for the front of the quilt) telling myself I had no time for any further hobbies, but I ended up walking out of the shop with it under my arm.
In the end I thoroughly enjoyed a different type of art. It was a fairly simple pattern with different sized squares that I had to cut out and then mix and match with other colours, and I was re-introduced to the sewing machine that I’ve had in a closet unused for more years than I care to admit. It needed to be oiled but I managed to make the quilt in a couple of weeks in between the studio tour I was in, and it was so lovely to be making something so totally different (and cleaner) than clay. I also managed to keep it secret from my husband, who I was giving it to for Christmas.
Broadening your horizons and trying new things is fun. Did I do everything right the first time? Heck no, I made a major mistake and had to pick out almost the whole thing and re-sew a lot of it because I misread the pattern and because my sewing wasn’t perfect, but even that was okay and taught me not to be so cocky. I’m not going to become a quilter in future, but I’m also not saying I may never make another one. I learned so much and now have a real appreciation of why quilts are so expensive to buy (they cost a bit to make unless you are using all your own material that you already have) and the time you have to put into it. And it’s good to be aware of how much work goes into any art work as you are buying someone’s time, materials and the years of learning that it took to get there. And that is worth a lot.