I had the greatest birthday…BOTH my daughters were home and I spent the day in the studio sharing ‘fibery’ pusuits with one of them. A weaver mum’s idea of nirvana.

Teresa is making a cot quilt for a new baby family member and I got to go with her to select the fabrics and see her cut and assemble the patchwork.Then we went to the quilting shop to buy the cotton batting. The owner took a step backwards when he discovered she was hand quilting it. He said ‘that is very unusual these days’. What has happened to hand quilting? I know a machine may be faster but that may be it’s only advantage.

Once again that idea of time and how to use it most effectively in our lives is raised. Craft and art by hand take time. Time to learn, analyse, develop skills, experiment, sample and create. If we spend time on something that can be easily created by machine, we ask ourselves, why?

Developing or ‘being’ a meaning for our work is essential. It contributes to our ability to use our time despite our fanciful calculations of an hourly monetary rate for ourselves and a sense of ‘wasting time’. I think many quilters enjoy using machines to quilt and this develops a new type of sensibility and purpose in the art. They can focus on other aspects of quilting design. However, there is still a reason to hand quilt..to enjoy and experience the time it takes, focusing on each and every stitch which eventually covers the whole quilt. It requires a discipline of the mind.

This is what I was doing on our ‘fibery’ day. A 16 shaft fancy twill. I plugged this pattern into the end of a warp I was weaving and was delighted with it. Sometimes looms just hand you a surprise.