When a quilter looks at fabric at the store and chooses fabric sometimes it’s for a specific project and sometimes it’s just because the fabric is pretty or something else about it is interesting to the quilter. Sometimes – no, lots of times – fabric gets stored in our stash and we look through it we fondle as we think about projects that we can use that fabric for. But we know that fabric is stored in our stash sometimes for a very long time. It’s hard to cut into fabric that we love. It’s challenging to use the pretty fat quarters that we’ve been storing for that special project for so long.
I’ve never made a Christmas quilt. I’ve looked at patterns and I’ve thought about it but I’ve never actually made a Christmas quilt. I was at Joann fabrics and I saw some really pretty Christmas fabric that I wanted to get, so I picked out a few designs. When I brought it home I said to myself I’m going to make a Christmas quilt with this. And then it sat. I didn’t put it in my stash, but it sat. I looked up patterns online. I sketched out patterns on paper. I even asked my husband to try to find a design for me. I think I spent more time looking for something to use that fabric for then I spent actually sewing the quilt.
One day I was looking online and I saw a pattern for Simple Sixteen from Fort Worth Fabric Company. I printed it out, and then I started to doubt myself again. Is this the right pattern? Will this work with the fabric that I picked? Then I said to myself: it’s just fabric. And I decided go for it. So I sewed the Simple Sixteen using the Christmas fabric and I like it. The top is done, but it’s not quilted yet.
Then I started thinking about how it’s just fabric. The only other thing I’ve made in the past month is our masks. My daughter picked out some fabric that she wanted for her masks for school and I made a few masks for her. Now, we are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and it’s necessary to wear a mask everywhere we go in public. But for some reason there are people who do not want to wear a mask. They refuse. They go into public without wearing a mask and risk exposure to themselves and everyone around them. It’s just fabric.
But it’s not. It’s more than that. For quilts, fabric is essential. The choice of fabric, the way the fabric is sewn together, and the reason for the fabric being crafted into a quilt. All of that is so important to the creation of a quilt. When we wear a mask, it’s essential. It is a health protection so that we can help avoid getting sick. I’s so important to the prevention of disease.
Most woven cotton quilt fabric is created in countries outside of the United States. Designers choose what gets printed on the fabric, and the fabric industry allows for that fabric to be created in mass volumes. But the work, the effort is done in small often Third World countries, where people are paid a minimal amount to do the work it takes for us to have a local quilt shop filled with beautiful prints of quilt cotton. I always think of this when I go in looking for a yard of fabric trying to get the best deal in the pattern I want. I always think about the supply chain and where that fabric comes from. Who designed it, who printed it, who shipped it, who took it off the truck and put it on the shelf? All of these people are part of this fabric. It’s just fabric, right? But it’s not. It’s not just fabric.
Whether it’s quilts or masks, this fabric touches the lives of more than just one person. The fabric that we use for quilts or the fabric mask that we wear on our face has a global impact. The quilts we make and the people we encounter in our daily lives have a personal impact. So no, it’s not just fabric.
