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"Writer! Quilter! All the things!"

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You are here: Home / Art / You Can’t Wrap a Baby In an iPad: Why Quilts (Still) Matter

You Can’t Wrap a Baby In an iPad: Why Quilts (Still) Matter

October 3, 2013 by Mary Fons 7 Comments

My Little Churn Dash. Designed and pieced by Mary Fons, quilted by LuAnn Downs.

My Little Churn Dash. Made by Mary Fons, quilted by LuAnn Downs.

Unless I’m at a cocktail party hosted by quilters, I am usually the only quilter at a cocktail party.

When I talk about what I do for work, someone will invariably say, “Sorry — did you say you’re a…quilter?” I nod and say yes and then two things happen: first, the person cocks their head and goes “Huh!” and then, “My auntie used to knit, too.” Sometimes I gently explain the difference between quilting and knitting, sometimes I just ask about the auntie.

If you’re not a quilter, you probably don’t think about quilts very often. You know what they are. You maybe had one in your house as a kid. You don’t know that we take umbrage when you to refer to a quilt as a blanket (please!) and you have no idea that the business of quilting kicks up $3.6 billion dollars annually — that’s just in the States. But that’s all perfectly okay. I don’t know about programming in Ruby, nothing about the Blue-Footed Booby (okay, that rhymed), or how to fix the sink. We all have our work and stuff we geek out on. Quilts, for me, are both. I traffic in them; you don’t.

But then…

Then a quilt comes into your field of vision and I can tell you exactly when it happens: when there’s a baby coming. When there’s a marriage. When someone is real, real sick. Unlike the Blue-Footed Booby, quilts arrive when they are needed and what I insist upon, what I know is true, what I make sure to say at any cocktail party, be-quilted or otherwise, is that quilts are still needed, still relevant by virtue of what they are. Quilts are love, manifested. Put another way:

You can’t wrap a baby in an iPad.

Technology is galloping away with us all and I’m riding bareback with all my quilter friends who, you could argue, are more digitally connected than other hobbyists — we have pictures of quilts to share, online bees; the entire Modern Quilt Guild “movement” was born online. But all the binary code on the planet can’t comfort a baby like wrapping it up in a quilt. Another example? Give a newlywed couple a handmade quilt and watch death rays emit from the eyes of everyone else at the shower — the crystal fruit bowl from Tiffany’s and the Kitchen-Aid mixer might as well be crap from the Dollar Store. You can’t beat a quilt with a stick. They’re magic. They’re irreplaceable. They’re also positively American, at least when we speak specifically of patchwork quilts (as opposed to whole cloth or fancy boutis stuff from Europe, and they can keep all that.)

Hey, I want my own MakerBot. My smartphone, myself.  In the Venn diagram of “Nerdy,” “Creative,” and “Friendly,” “Quilter” is smack in the middle. Besides, we like buttons and stuff. But what gadget — and while we’re at it, what work of art — can you wrap up in, sit on, barf on, wash, cry under, make a tent out of, mop up stuff with, hug, throw, wad, rip, repair, and then give as an heirloom? I’d guess there’s probably just one answer to that question.

And so we still make quilts. We still do. And we will for a long time because try as we might to wriggle out of it, we’re still human. Humans need comfort and joy and to me and my fellow grieving, joyous, aging, newborn, and just plain chilly humans, a quilt is just the thing.

Filed Under: Art, Quilting Tagged With: buy a quilt, mary fons quilt, mary fons quilty, quilting in America, quilting is important, quilts are great, who cares about quilts, why quilts are great, why quilts matter, you can't wrap a baby in an ipad

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. dianejfa says

    October 3, 2013 at 2:09 PM

    Love your churn dash quilt! So pleasing…the neutrals with just the right splash of color.

    Reply
  2. Michael Holmes says

    October 11, 2013 at 12:01 AM

    What a fantastically articulate way to sum up, quilts, quilting and the feelings the evoke.

    Very well put Mary!!

    Reply
  3. Clair says

    October 13, 2013 at 1:51 AM

    Couldn’t have put it better myself!
    I think the most comforting, heart warming image is that of a pile of quilts stacked high!
    Quilts spell HOME to me 🙂

    Reply
  4. Becca says

    November 22, 2013 at 5:44 AM

    Beautiful quilt!

    I love this quilt quote “Quilts are love, manifested.”

    Reply
  5. beth says

    December 24, 2013 at 6:57 PM

    LOVE this post.

    Reply
  6. Byrd says

    December 25, 2013 at 8:23 PM

    Excellent post! I enclose a card with all of my quilts that are gifts for bablies. I write that their quilt gives hugs, makes a great cape, absorbs tears, wraps them in art and generally keeps them warm. This doesn’t even come close to what the process of quilt making does for me. Quilts are the best! Take care, Byrd

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. you put a spell on me says:
    October 18, 2013 at 9:41 AM

    you put a spell on me…

    Very cool! I am a great friend from You Can't Wrap a Baby In an iPad: Why Quilts (Still) Matter | Mary Fons…

    Reply

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First, a call to be yourself. Then, a cry to not be me, at least for dinner. ;) ... See MoreSee Less

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As a single, thirty-something woman with no children, living in downtown Chicago as I do, I am careful about the stories I tell about myself and the stories I tell to myself. There’s a tired narra...
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