WHY I QUILT

The following article was recently posted on the Quiltville Chat yahoo quilter's group and reflects the thoughts and feelings of many quilters in a touching and thought provoking way. Thank you to Sherrie T in Missouri for permission to share her heart felt words.

Why I Quilt; Why I Belong to Yahoo Groups; Thankfulness -

I'm asking all of you to reach out and give each other a nice big hug right
now :) And ask yourselves - why do you quilt?
I quilt because it brings me peace and joy. I am not very fast but I enjoy
just putting the little pieces of fabric together and watching them grow
into something even more beautiful. When I sit down at the sewing machine I
do a lot of thinking ..., maybe that's why I'm slow ... but all of the
hurts/wrongs/worries start to go away as the machine and I settle in to
creating something. For me, the process of creating the quilt is what
brings me joy. By the time the last stitch happens I'm pretty much tired of
it and ready to move on ... hence the reason I love to send my quilts out to
be actually quilted. I'm not into art quilts or creating a masterpiece that
wins every award. But some of you are and I want you to know I appreciate
your work. We are just different and that is OK. I'm not an artist in the
sense of drawing ... I struggle with stick figures lol. I'm very critical
of myself in most areas ... but quilting seems to be the one place I can say
I feel confident. Does that mean everyone likes my color choices? Nope :)
But I'm happy with it and I leave it alone. So why do YOU quilt? :)

Why I belong to Yahoo Groups: Because I enjoy all of you! Yes I live in
the city and yes I belong to a guild. But honestly at the end of the work
day I've given a lot of myself ... like most everyone here. I want to come
home and spend time with my husband and my daughter ... and maybe sew a bit
... and maybe get on here and see what all of you have been up to ... in the
comfort of my own home sitting at my kitchen table in my pjs probably. I
love Bonnie, Pat Sloan, Judy Martin, Blackbird gals, and a whole lot of
other folks in the quilting world that inspire me. Including each and
everyone of you that share your quilts and your life so freely. Which leads
me to my last thoughts:

Thankfulness: For those in the States, we are approaching our Thanksgiving
Day. Most of us could pass each other on the street and not even know each
other. I'm thankful for each and everyone one of you here. I try to
remember when I post you aren't hearing my voice ... it's SO hard to convey
our tone of voice to each other. I try (try, not perfect) to remember we
are just like a patchwork quilt. Different backgrounds, styles, countries,
etc. Some of us are sewing on hand me down machines or hand piecing ... or
we have the TOL sewing machine. Some of us are at the kitchen table ...
some of us have actual studios. Some of us will only pick out the fabric
and maybe, maybe start the first clue of the next mystery by sometime next
year. But put us all together and we are beautiful ... just like a Bonnie
quilt :) Some of us have a child or parent that is just worrying us to
death ... some of us have a job that may go away any minute ... or our
marriage is struggling ... or, or, or, or ... we ALL have battles we are
fighting ... let's be kind to each other. Let's just be thankful for each
other :)

Sherrie in Missouri