Numbers, numbers
I started quilting when I was 24 and expecting my first child. It was 1984.
There happens to be a well-known piece of literature entitled 1984, by the way. Maybe that vintage book cover will help you think back.
I’m inviting you to remember how quilting used to be.
When I started quilting, I didn’t belong to a quilt guild because there weren’t any nearby. I subscribed to only one quilting magazine because the others on the newsstand were questionable—the lines around the templates were very fat, and even I knew that those were problematic.
There were no quilt stores I was aware of. The only quilters I knew were the two women from my church with whom I’d taken a beginner’s class, and we were all just starting out. We didn’t know enough to know how much we didn’t know.
My exposure to new ideas was limited to the arrival of Quilter’s Newsletter each month.
Fast forward to 2022 . My, how things have changed.
Today I belong to one active quilt guild and there are at least four others within 60 miles that I sometimes visit. On the newsstand, there are a dozen quilt magazines from the US and around the world.
There are 10 quilt shops fairly close by that I visit at least once a year, and some I visit as often as every month.
And now (in this I feel lucky) I know hundreds of quilters. And even if I wasn’t working in the industry, I’d be acquainted with dozens and dozens of like-minded folks. Quilters are everywhere.
But do you know what has changed my quilting life the most?
The internet.
Yes ma’am, the world wide web has changed every thing about my patchwork journey. I’m not saying it’s all bad because, hey, I love the internet.
But today I am inundated with ideas.
I have fabric fatigue. I have patterns I won’t live long enough to make. I have books stacked everywhere. And I have rulers and gadgets and thread and six kinds of pins. I have thimbles and needles and markers and a die cutting machine.
I have coffee cups and drink holders and vintage sewing collectibles. I have a few dozen toy sewing machines. I have feed sacks and storage bins.
I own acrylic templates up the wazoo. I have enamel pins and charms and cutesy buttons. I have charm packs and jelly rolls and layer cakes, too. I have more sewing machines than I’m willing to admit.
I have quilting stationery and jewelry and t-shirts and socks and art and a clock (whoops, two clocks). I even have a lamp but that’s a story for another day. I was exposed to much of this stuff online, and clearly I was convinced that I needed to own it all.
I’m not sure how I feel about this.
It’s excessive, there’s no doubt. But quilting is my joy and my identity, the place where I have found my self, truly and completely. A few people in my life, should any of them read this, will raise their eyebrows, but it’s true. Quilting is where I was born, where I reside and where I will die.
So is it a problem that my quilting cache is enormous?
I think each of us has to answer the question for herself (himself for the male quilters, and they do exist in surprising numbers). For me, the phantasmagoria is currently a problem for two reasons.
#1: I have run out of space. I have no more room for quilt stuff. And…
#2: I have run out of head space.
This is the biggie.
In the early days I only saw new ideas when my magazine arrived each month. There were just a few patterns inside and minimal advertising. By comparison, today I can see hundreds of ideas before breakfast. By the end of the day, I’ve processed thousands, maybe tens of thousands. I’ve surfed Facebook groups, watched Instagram stories and reels, and on especially bad days browsed Pinterest, too. I’ve scrolled ad nauseum.
And in true old-school fashion, I’ve also perused some of my books, paged through a few magazines and browsed some of the patterns I’ll never make. I am overwhelmed with ideas and it’s threatening to explode my brain.
It’s too much. It’s much too much.
I’ll save my conclusions for the next post. But for now, I want to know: Do you feel this way, too?
Thank you for reading!
Tags: books, notions, quilt industry news, quilt lifestyle, quilt patterns
Becky
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Diane – you summed up very well how I feel – I am constantly turning first one direction then another within the quilting world and feel like I’m just spinning my wheels and actually get very little sewing done. The other thing I struggle with is that there seems to be so much pressure to not only produce multiple projects quickly (I have to often remind myself that the extremely talented Japanese quilters will spend years on one quilt and they don’t apologize for it like I feel I need to when I take a long time) – but to produce them from original designs. That isn’t my forte yet again I feel that I need to apologize for using a pattern!!
Jan
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Yes, Diane, I have some of your same feelings. I have more rulers, patterns, sewing machines , etc than I’ll ever be able to use. I’ve given some away, sold some, but still have too much. It’s a problem in that I have no place to put stuff when I clean up. It’s something that I need to address but not sure how or what to do about it. Here’s hoping you can find an answer. 😊. Don’t know about you but I have to be in the mood to get rid of my stuff!!
Joyce Cardarelli
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Do I ever feel the same. Endless! A set of blinders & I will wait in the car? Internet info & options about fabric, thread etc is available 24/7.
I am working towards the simple ways when creating a masterpiece.
Leslie Schmidt
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Oh, yes, and how! I haven’t been quilting as long as you. I started in 1998, after watching Simply Quilts and never imagining I would ever quilt. But once I got hooked, I was royally hooked. I subscribed to nearly every magazine (and still have almost all of them.) I have over 1000 patterns, not counting the ones downloaded or torn from magazines. My sewing room is crammed with fabric, books, and tools, some still in the original wrapping. I’m getting too old to ever accomplish have of the projects I had hoped to make. I subscribed to numerous blogs that I don’t have time to read. When I feel as though I’ve lost my interest, I will look through my books to get reenergized, but I still can not finish everything I want to.
I feel your pain!
Laura G
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Yes. Precisely. Info overload. I finally have got to prioritize what I can and want to do. And I need to de-clutter. Decluttering my mind first and foremost.
Marty Link
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Yes, yes, yes. I sometimes (…often) feel overwhelmed. You are not alone.
Judy
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Amazing, amazing but I could have , for the most part, written this post! Unfortunately the quilt shops in “my area” have significantly dwindled, and I don’t seem to have access to many quilt guilds, but your other thoughts/comments are mine, too!!
And I am sure we are not the only ones!
But THE BEST PART OF BEING A QUILTER is knowing other quilters, being with other quilters and know they think like me!
Maybe we could be considered a big GANG, but I prefer to think of them as my quilting sisters or my tribe.
Amy Falise
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What a great and thought-provoking post! I found myself agreeing with you with each paragraph! I think that it IS too much sometimes. I have found that I have to be very aware of what triggers my desire for more fabric and stay away from it if possible. Pinterest is especially bad for me and my wallet! I also evaluate my online purchases more carefully now that space is a concern. I only started quilting less than 2 years ago, but already my small sewing room is crowded. But I am getting pretty good at stopping myself before buying, even when I see a really good bargain. In the end, I really don’t need it.
I’d love to peruse a stack of quilt magazines from the 80s when I was just a teenager. My grandmother was an avid quilter, and had regular quilting bees in her basement surrounded by friends that gathered around the handmade quilting frame my grandfather made for her. I wish I had been bitten by the quilting bug back then; she could have taught me so much!
And lastly, thank you for fulfilling my “learn something new every day” requirement. I had to look up “phantasmagoria”! What a great word!
Jan Fitch
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You have described my house and my head perfectly! One result is many UFOs. I have started making a dent in those since i retired, but i have also created more. I have QUILTING ADD (I’ve just realized how appropriate those initials are!). Yesterday i went to my first show in 3 years. Luckily it was relatively small and included garment sewing and machinr embroidery, which don’t interest me. I managed to confine my purchases to: fewer than 20 spools of thread, 1 yard, 1 pattern, 1 kit. I’m so proud that I’ve begun to realize i don’t need everything i see that i like ( and can’t store and organize it). Covid got me to use my stash, and I’m determined to do my shopping there!
Jean Shores
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Wow! You wrote this article about me! Definitely agree with the internet changing quilting. I think its a good thing…….we just have to be choosy about the information we want to keep in our heads or download, I guess.
Rebecca Ball
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Yes, I do feel that way. I want to make so many quilts and yet I don’t seem to “get to” the ones I want to make. There are graduation quilts in the works, baby quilts forever, memory quilts (Don died in January and other than setting shirts aside I have done nothing); I don’t want to see another stack of t-shirts! Pinterest drives me crazy with ideas. The magazine with your quilt had to come home with me…… It never ends.
Beverley
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Oh my gosh, I feel the same way! Your blog post really hit home. I too, am overwhelmed by all the quilting ideas available through social media, blogs and newsletters and I want to make them all! I have run out of room for any kind of quilting item in my sewing space but I love all the quilty stuff! I am so looking forward to your conclusion to see how you will cope with the the overload. Thanks 🙂
Carolyn
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Absolutely. I put some of it down to my age.. 75. I had over 16 3-ring binders of ideas and patterns either culled from magazines or off the internet and have spent the summer going through them and now have 8. That is still a huge number of ideas and patterns. Someone told me to call them inspiration albums which I feel much better about. My fabric is organized and I find the more I ‘handle’ it, the less eager I am to buy more or new. I don’t live near any quilt shops… a good half hour drive minimum to get to one and I appreciate being able to shop my stash. All my quilts that I make are for donation and my goal is reduce the stash. I pick one kind at a time to work with. This summer, I used batik scraps and fat quarters to make a couple of quilts. My current effort is with my kid’s fabrics and make preemie and toddler quilts for donation to the local NICU and through our guild. Love the 3 yard quilts that seem to be all the rage. Great way to make a simple quilt and use fabric. But, yes, it is overwhelming. I have purged all my ‘other’ supplies: macrame, fabric painting, postcard making etc. But, the books! So many and I would like them to go a new home if possible. One day and one project at a time.
Ary M Anderson
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Diane,
I had to chuckle as I read this blog. I can identify with the collection of fabric and quilting supplies. Where to put it all AND remember WHERE I put it is my challenge. I saw myself which is scary.
Ary
Marilyn K McGahan
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Can’t wait to have you teach us how to solve this challenge so many of us face. I actually haven’t purchased any fabric for almost a year. Of course, I have enough on the shelves to keep me quilting until I am about 250 years old! And then there are the kits, the patterns, the odds and ends such as decks of “quilt” cards, quilt calendars, and those darn magazines and books!!! Help!!!
Nancy Sue Arnoldy
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You hit the nail on the head! I, too, have no more physical space or brain space. But I bought two more patterns last week. Yikes!
Not to mention that I have hardly been home since the end of July. It feels good to get back to doing things and seeing people, but there has been almost an excess of that, too.
I am attempting to focus on the projects that matter most to me and make me happy. I am getting better at finishing things, even though I am a process person.
And I look forward to seeing what your approach is.
Beth T.
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Yes. When I looked through my most recent issue of “Quiltmania”, I saw about a half-dozen really inspiring ideas–quilts I wanted to to seriously consider working on, or jumping off points for projects I might develop. Yet I had just paged through an enormous binder in which I keep patterns I have purchased, collected, or Xeroxed from one of my magazines–things I “intend” on making in the future. It occurred to me that if the new Quiltmania were the only magazine I owned, and the only one I was likely to receive for the foreseeable future–if I were a pioneer woman, for example and had been given a precious gift–it would keep me busy and satisfied for a very long time. Instead, a new version of this magazine will arrive in a couple of months, and several other magazines will have shown up before then. It’s a lot. And I am spending a lot of time looking rather than creating.
Bridget
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I miss QNM. I no longer subscribe to the other magazines because for the most part they recycled the same patterns in this years fabrics.