Time for full disclosure: I am not a quilter. I have dabbled here and there - made the odd patchwork square and even took a class once, though I have never actually completed a quilt. But I am a committed crafter who finds the time to work every single day in some medium, whether knitting, beading, needlepoint, or papercrafts. Working with my hands to create something I consider beautiful is, for me, as necessary as food, sleep, or love. It’s something that I simply cannot imagine not doing. And when I’m crafting, that’s the time I find myself most open and alert to discovering God moving in mystery through my life. When I take up a needle, I feel myself tapping into something divine inside of me.
What is it about crafting that brings me to such a special, sacred awareness? I think it’s the fact that when I’m crafting I feel most rooted and connected to my past. When I hold a needle, I’m aware of a line like a thread that runs from me back through the generations to all other women who came before me in the craft. For someone who’s moved from place to place most of her life and whose family tree is more like a family stick, this is a very powerful feeling. Practicing traditional crafts like quilting can bring a rootedness in tradition—the same thing that many of us find in our religious practices and in our churches. That sense of rootedness is not something easily found in fast-paced, technology-driven times.
I’m not alone in feeling this way. Untold numbers of crafters, many of them quilters, before me have discovered that there’s something about working with your hands that can bring a deeper understanding of God and of our purpose in God’s universe. Perhaps it’s because when we’re making something, we’re engaging in an act of creation—an act that we, then, share with God, our Creator. Our creations are extensions of God’s creations. And, when we craft, we’re using talents, skills, and abilities that came to us from the hand of God. To me, it isn’t a stretch to imagine that the use of these abilities can be a link to the Mystery that originally gave them to us. I don’t know. And it doesn’t matter. All that I know is that when I am crafting I feel more alive and more involved in my inner spiritual life than at any other time.
Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi is a quilter, quilt historian, and quilt curator at the forefront of the move to recognize and value the spiritual qualities of the craft.
"For me, as an artist, there is no separation between art and religion," Carolyn says. "To me, art is worship because both art and religion deal with man's self-understanding. Both spring forth from the spirit of humanity. There is a godly connection at work. You cannot create unless you are guided by the Spirit. That is the target of the finished product and that is the target of the soul"
I thought there were some very profound thought here and some that resonated well with me. Have a wonderful Summer, looking forward to spending time with you all in the Fall.
Heide
