What comes to mind when you think of quilting? A quilting bee of pioneer women on the prairie? You might be surprised to learn that quilting dates as far back as ancient Egypt. An ivory carving in the British Museum shows the first Egyptian Dynasty king wearing a quilted mantle. The Quilter’s Survey, conducted annually by Premier Needle Arts, estimates that there are 10-12 million quilters in North America as of 2021. Why is this still a thing?
Tradition
Peggy Cox of Stafford, Va. started sewing at an early age. Her grandmother in Germany sent kits that had cardboard pieces with yarn that was used to stich them together when Cox was around 4 years old.
“I’ve never counted how many quilts I’ve made. Probably in the thousands,” Cox said. Her grandmother told her, “you’ll never make as many as I do.” Her grandmother made quilts entirely by hand, and Cox makes them with modern sewing machines, but that conversation inspired Cox to not count how many quilts she made so that she would never truly know that she made more quilts than her grandmother.
Kris Smith of Galt, Mo. said that her grandmother was a quilter and taught her the basics. “I remember making a Barbie doll quilt at eight years old,” Smith said.
Judy Manza of Simsbury, Conn. didn’t learn from her grandmother, but says quilting is a connection to her grandmother, the first member of the family born in the U.S. “She was extremely poor. She would cut up old clothes to make them; she needed blankets for the family.”
An Expensive Hobby
No longer made from fabric scraps and rags, both Manza and Smith described quilting as an expensive hobby. “By the time you’ve purchased all your supplies and had it professionally quilted, each quilt can cost several hundred dollars,” Manza explained.
Many quilters, including Manza and Smith, sew their patterns, then send the quilt out to a long-arm quilter to put it together. Cox has her own long-arm quilter, so she does the complete quilt from start to finish.
A 2017 Quilting in America survey shows that quilters spend an average of $3,363 per year on quilting. Sewing machines can cost as much as $20,000.
Gift of Love
Cox, who can make up to 20 quilts per year, gives most to charity, donating the quilt itself or selling them and donating the proceeds. She made baby quilts for parents who had lost their babies when she worked at a hospital in Germany. She works with Quilts of Valor, an organization that awards quilts to service members or veterans. Cox has been making quilts for the children at an orphanage started by a friend in Kenya.
Smith has never sold a quilt; she makes them to give as gifts for weddings, birthdays, graduations, new babies. She hasn’t counted how many she has made, but says, “I can whip out a quilt in two to three days.” She has made one for each of her kids and grandkids. Currently she has 14 quilts waiting for her to tack down the binding.
Manza is much newer to quilting. She makes about one per year and has given all but two away: “It’s a real gift of love. I don’t have a huge repertoire, but I remember every one.”
Community
Quilting can be either a social or solitary activity. Manza speaks of the joy she gets attending classes at local quilt/fabric stores. Smith said that she and a friend go on road trips to quilt shops. She’s meeting more people and seeing more men who are quilting. Smith also reported that the most fun she had was when she was stationed in Japan while active-duty Air Force. Several Japanese ladies joined their quilting group and taught different techniques. “Quilting is worldwide.”
As Cox says, “There are so many different aspects of quilting. There’s traditional, contemporary, fabric art. Some are amazing, some are ‘what the hell is that?’”
Manza shared a story about when her son’s second-grade teacher did a cross-cultural study on quilts—the history, math and art. Parents were invited to bring in quilts for show-and-tell. She showed one her grandmother had made for her, pointing out her aunt’s shirt, her uncle’s tie, her grandmother’s apron. A girl in the class asked her, “When you wrap yourself up in your grandmother’s quilt, can you feel her love?”
Quilting is still a thing because it is an act of love, connecting the quilter to both the recipient and to their own family traditions. Manza describes quilts as “a perfect mix of art, functionality, and history. When you create any kind of artwork, especially visual, it will last forever.”
