Why Quilt? It’s All About Joy

Wondering if it is worth investing time and money into a quilting hobby? Wondering what the benefits of quilting are? You’ve come to the right place. Here are twenty reasons to start this hobby and keep on quilting.

• Making a quilt from start to finish brings personal satisfaction..
• Planning out your quilt and following it through until it is finished can help you feel grounded.
• Creativity through quilting can stir your soul.
• You become a quilt designer whether you make your own pattern or put your own personal spin on an existing pattern.
• Making a quilt is an adventure. It is fun to see how it all turns out.
• Quilting is like reading. It can provide a healthy escape to your day.
• Giving your quilting projects away can bring happiness to you and the person you give it to.
• You exercise your mind in many ways when quilting.
• You can improve your quilting skills with each quilt you make.
• Quilting is like putting a puzzle together.
• Quilting provides ways to meet new people.
• Listening to quilting podcasts open up new ways to learn and enjoy quilting.
• This is a hobby and a legacy you can pass on to others.
• Quilting can provide stress release and much needed relaxation.
• You can work on a quilting project while watching your favorite shows on tv or listening to your favorite songs.
• You tell a story about yourself with each quilt you make.
• Quilting can be considered self care.
• Displaying your quilts in your home in a variety of ways brings personal accomplishment.
• Quilting connects you with the past, present, and future in ways that makes your quilting hobby invaluable.
• The benefits of quilting outweigh the costs and spell joy for you.

Who would have thought that I would be bitten or smitten by the quilting bug! I love to craft and create and always admired people who quilted but didn’t think it was a craft or hobby I would invest time or money into until I took a closer look. I can get my craft on in so many ways from quilting. Once I got started, I had no desire to look back. Like “Dory” from Finding Nemo says “Keep on swimming…” I just keep on quilting. I have found it to be relaxing, fun, adventurous, and rewarding on so many levels. Let’s take a closer look and I’ll try and talk you into trying this hobby.

Personal Satisfaction

I love it when a project comes together don’t you? Quilting brings with it a sense of personal satisfaction. From fabric selection, to choosing your pattern and then the cutting, sewing, and quilting, you really feel like you accomplished something big when you take on a quilting project and see it, touch it, and feel it completed in your hands. It brings joy knowing you created a quilt start to finish.

Quilting Grounds You

Learning how to quilt is like learning to cook or learning how to crochet. You become educated step by step as you learn your skill. You can plan out your quilting project to give structure to your day as you put it together little by little. I like to plan out what I will be working on for the day as I start to quilt. I plan what I will do as far as choosing or designing a pattern, choosing fabric, and cutting out my pattern. This is not only productive but again it gives you that feeling of getting something worthwhile done and it gives you a sense of pride as you accomplish quilting goals.

Creativity Stirs Your Soul

Being creative is a really good thing. Quilting provides an opportunity to use your creative genes. Don’t tell me you don’t have any either. Anyone can cultivate their creativity with practice. This is both stimulating to your brain and helps you as the more you use your creativity, the more creative you become. I love to create. I feel the joy of creating within when I create a quilt. Creating a quilt brings me joy in many ways.

You Are A Quilt Designer

No matter if you use your own design or someone else’s pattern, you are a quilt designer. When you use a quilt pattern, you get to choose your own fabric and colors for that pattern. If you deviate from the pattern colors and fabric suggested for the quilt, you are creating your own interpretation of that design. Now isn’t that a rewarding thought? It becomes your own creative quilt. If you want to strike out on your own and create your own quilt design, start very simple with an easy quilt block and make a go of it. You will surprise yourself with how much fun it can be to be daring in creating your own simple quilt design!

Be Adventurous

Think of quilting this way, every time you set out to sew and quilt a quilt, it is like an adventure. You have to choose a pattern or design your own. Find the right fabric to fit the look you want. Then set out creating it. It may or may not turn out the way you first planned it but that is all part of the fun. You create an adventure in quilting and it can be very rewarding. If your quilt doesn’t turn out the way you hoped or you aren’t happy with it, try again. Mistakes are allowed when you are on your quilt journey. You can give that quilt away. Quilting isn’t perfection but it is progression as you work to get better each time you create a quilt. It can be even a little exciting to see what path you are going to take this time beginning a quilt and where you will end up.

Escape Into The World Of Quilting

Judy Garland (yes I am a fan) sang a song called “Forget your troubles come on get happy., chase all your blues away…shout hallelujah come on get happy, get ready for the judgement day.” That is what you do when you quilt. Forget your troubles I mean. Quilting is like reading a book. You can escape into the ins and outs of making your quilt. When reading a really good boo, you “get lost” in its pages. It can be the same with quilting. Quilting provides a healthy escape for your day. (Provided you still get your chores done.)

Give Away Happiness

When you give a gift of yourself it can bring you happiness to you and the person you give it to. Maybe you make a table runner, a hot pad, or a quilt. Whatever quilting project you take on and then give it away will bring some amount of joy because you shared your quilting talent.

Mind Games

Have you ever thought of quilting in terms of what it can do for your brain. You use your brain in so many ways when you quilt. Sometimes you use it to figure yardage using your math skills. I was never good at math but have to try and step it up when creating my quilts. (Never fear if math isn’t your thing either. I have found ways to compensate for it.) You use your brain if you mix and match quilt blocks to design your own quilt. Fabric selection and color selection is another way to use your brain. Quilting is a great way and not to mention fun way to jungle gym your mind wink wink.

Improve Your Skills

Each time you start a quilt it gets a little easier. As you continue to practice quilting skills you get faster and stronger so to speak. I was making a quilt recently and my husband was so surprised that the quilt parts laying on the floor were machine quilted and sewn together by the time he came home from work later that day. “Was that the quilt laying on the floor earlier?” he remarked seeing it hanging from the fireplace mantel. He complimented me by saying I was getting faster. I had to smile because it was true! This brings the joy of improvement because you see the fruits of your efforts and hard work each time you quilt.

Quilting Is Like A Puzzle

My mom and her hubby like to put puzzles together as a way to exercise their brains and to spend time together. They probably have over 50 puzzle they have completed hanging on their walls in the basement. She glues the puzzle down on mat board after they put it together. Quilting is like that. It is like putting a puzzle together and when you finish it, you can display it in your home. Quilt blocks are puzzle pieces. You lay out your puzzle pieces the way you want them to look, sew them altogether, quilt your quilt blocks, add the binding and your puzzle (aka quilt) is done. Here is a recipe for my favorite way to bind a quilt, What Is The Easiest Way To Bind A Quilt?

You Can Meet New People Through Quilting

It is always a good thing when you can meet new people. Especially if you can bond with people through quilting. My sister in law has a group she quilts with and vacations with on a regular basis. It’s a small group of people that have become like sisters to her. Start your own quilting group. Invite a few people over to your home. You could attend a quilt retreat What Is A Quilt Retreat? or meet a group of quilters online virtually participating in a quilt along What Is A Quilt Along? You have many options here. Check your local quilting fabric store. They may have opportunities for quilting with others in their local shop.

Quilting Podcasts

Here is another place to learn and find tips and shortcuts about quilting that can make your quilting life easier and joy filled. I have found a few of these podcasts that are fun to listen to and learn from. One in particular is a mother daughter duo podcast. You can listen only or watch them on You Tube. A Quilting Life with Sherri McConnel and her daughter Chelsie Stratton is one I recommend. They share quilts they have made and fabric they have designed and share their stories behind what they have created. They also answer listener and viewer questions. Check it out. Give it a listen and see what you think. You may find yourself smiling listening to the positive way they encourage you to keep quilting.

Pass It On

This is a valuable hobby that you can pass on and share with others. So your joy can be two fold. If you have children or grandchildren interested in sewing and quilting teach them. Maybe start with a T shirt quilt if they have a collection of quilts that they could create a quilt with. My sweet mother in law is 89. She taught and helped two of my daughters make their own quilts for their beds. We cherish those quilts! She has quilted and given so many quilts away to her grandchildren and children that she leaves a beautiful legacy and example of using her creativity to bless the lives of others. You can do this too.

Stress Less, Relax More

Quoting can be very relaxing and help you relax. When you focus on your sewing and quilting project, your mind is busy thinking about your quilt and not about your problems. Sometimes working on a quilt might help you solve a problem you have been stewing over because your mind is more free to think about it in a creative way when you are quilting. Hobbies are good therapy and can help you relax and quilting fits that category. Is Quilting Good Therapy?

Make Your Quilting Experience Enjoyable

When you quilt, make it an enjoyable experience that invites joy. What do I mean? Turn on your favorite tunes while you sew and quilt. Watch a favorite movie while you are sewing the binding on your quilt. Make it a special me time in your day. This can bring you a lot of satisfaction as you whittle away at your quilting projects. You could even talk to someone you enjoy talking with or talk to someone who needs a boost of comfort from you through speaker phone while quilting.

What’s Your Story

Each time you make a quilt you tell a story about yourself. No matter how easy or difficult that quilt is that you are making, you show how you put colors together, how you organize quilt blocks on your quilt, colors that you like, etc… It is a story of hard work and creativity and love that goes into each and every stitch. A piece of you is quilted into your quilt. That has to bring you some joy just thinking about it.

Use Quilting As Self Care

I am a big fan of Dr. Rangun Chatterjee. He is a doctor that takes a holistic approach to his patients and has written several self care books (sold on Amazon). He discovered while treating his patients how important it was for them to do something they enjoyed for 15 minutes or more a day. He noticed this brought more happiness and joy to his patients and helped with their levels of stress. This is what quilting can do for you. Just 15 minutes a day but I’ll bet you will want to do it longer brings mental and emotional help as you reward yourself with a little quilting daily to boost your mood and bring more joy and sunshine into your life.

Joy In Personal Accomplishment

First hang with me here as we talk about displaying your quilts in your home. There are many ways to do that.

• Fold your quilt lengthwise and display it on a couch where it can be used when needed.
• Put your quilt on the top of your bed for a comforter.
• Hang the quilt on the wall.
• Use it for a table runner or table cloth on your dining room table.
• Display your quilt on a quilt ladder.
• Use it for a Christmas tree skirt.
• Hang a Halloween or Christmas mini quilt from a fireplace mantel.

Wherever you choose to display it, the quilt YOU made will help to decorate your home. When you see it displayed, it will warm your heart. All the hours spent planning, shopping, and creating your quilt can give you a sense of personal accomplishment. That finished project you call a quilt has your stamp of creativity on it. That is something to feel proud of.

Connecting You With History, The Now, And The Future

Quilting has a beautiful past. A history. Quilts were a staple to the pioneers. Maybe your family shares a connection with quilting and past history. My grandma and my great grandma and probably beyond that passed this beautiful hobby down to their daughters ( my mom being one of those daughters) and shared their quilts with their sons. Then my mom passed this art to me and my sisters. Quilts were a staple and enjoyed in many ways as already mentioned in this post, by those who came before us. Creating quilts connects you with the present. Quilts tell your story as you share them with family members today. Or maybe you teach someone you know and love how to quilt. Quilts bring warmth and joy of knowing you created it for them. Your quilts can be passed on to other family members to connect with your future posterity. You can be remembered by your quilts. A gift that keeps on giving can bring you and others joy.

Quilting Benefits OutWeigh The Cost

Yes quilting can be expensive. It adds up fast when you buy the supplies to quilt with and the fabric and thread for your projects. Look at it more like an investment. Investing in a worthwhile hobby that can bring hours of fun and enjoyment in each quilting journey. You can’t put a price on happiness or something that can help you manage your stress and help you relax more. This is my proverbial two cents worth. A quilting hobby brings you more in the long run than it costs. The costs are definitely worth it.

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