A Quilting Culture

 From a recent e-mailI received, I began to re-realize the meaning behind "a common thread".  My e-commerce Quilt Shoppe gets visitors from all over the world.  Some of these include very far off places such as Taiwan, Japan, Lithuania, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. Some closer to home countries include Spain, France,  Great Britain, Turkey, Croatia, Romania, Brazil, Chili and  of course our Canadian friends.

 In fact you don't  have to go outside our borders to get the feeling that you are connecting with others through a common thread.  From one part of our nation to the other, people live following different cultures, philosophies and religions.  

Weather I am answering quilting questions from  my neighboring states to the south ,  the mid-west, Alaska or over seas I still find it fascinating that all across the world we have a  common thread of being  a part of a quilting culture.  

Quilters want to know how-to, which products, thimbles and threads work best.  We all know that's YLIand Aurifil!  Quilters  all over are hungry for classes and information at the basic level.  I imagine it must seem a bit difficult for non-quilters to understand why we want to cut up larger pieces of fabric only to sew them back together to make a quilt top.  Certainly it's easier to find a pre-fabricated quilt at the local discount mart, but the final product is not really the point in quilting culture,it's about the journey we take to get there.

I encourage everyone who has ever wanted to quilt to take the journey, find your path and define your own quilting culture.   

Quilting Culture (as I define it): The social(attending quilt shows,  bees), intellectual    ( attending lectures, classes workshops) and artistic( attempting to step out of your comfort zone through color and pattern and design) manifestations that characterize a society ( or a quilter). The refinement of taste as acquired by training. (Learning what you like by taking chances, classes, workshops).