Design versus craft in the quilting world

I read an ​interesting email​ recently from a woodworker I follow. 

I am not a woodworker, but I love his email because of his insights on mental processes – in many ways woodworking is like sewing.

In it, he talks about a spectrum from designing to crafting. 

Some people love to design things. To come up with something new. To make the pattern for others to follow. 

Other people just like to do the thing. To follow a pattern. To immerse themselves in the crafting of something.

In quilting, designing would look like drawing numerous quilts on graph paper or playing in EQ8 endlessly, but never making a quilt. 

Crafting would be only ever making quilts from kits that provide ALL the fabrics and notions – making beautiful quilts but never making any design decisions.

There’s no right answer here.

Most of us fall somewhere in-between the two extremes. Buy the pattern, pick out a completely different color way. Buy fabric and go searching for a pattern. Make a kit in a class to learn a new skill and follow it up by designing a quilt using that new skill. 

Use a pattern but fiddle with parts of it because you like it better that way.

But it’s worth thinking about as you sew. Because then you can lean in to what makes you happiest and find ways to enjoy the necessary parts. 

I love to design. But I want those designs to have purpose – which to me means making them go out into the world as a quilts. 

In the past, I used to rush through the making of the quilt – using the most efficient techniques possible. Super productivity in all my hours seemed important back then because homeschooling four kids is a LOT. 

Now that I’m an empty nester flailing about, I’m able to step back and slow down enough to try to appreciate the craft. 

Of course, being able to fiddle instead of just follow means that you have to have some understanding of what you are doing. Of what works and what will certainly be a total disaster. 

Though sometimes it’s good to flirt with disaster, because flirting is fun.

So tell me – where on the craft-design spectrum do you fall in your quilting adventure?

Are you happy there?

My aim in all my courses and videos is to provide the basics that are easy to follow, but also provide the reasoning behind decisions so you can fiddle and flirt with abandon.

If you’re a brand new sewer, that’s what my ​Fabric to Finished​ course will provide you in starting your quilting adventure. 

If your sewing machine keeps you from enjoying the process or experimenting with new threads and techniques, ​Master Your Machine​ was made for you.