Several years ago, my therapist approached me with the idea of using needle crafts as a way to deal with my anxiety and depression. My sister had recently died, I had just been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, on top of mild depression and severe general anxiety that seemed to be getting worse no matter what we did. I normally spent my Saturday mornings laying on the sofa watching the various crafts shows on PBS anyways so I decided why not. I had done (and still do to a lesser degree) needlepoint in the past and wanted to try something new. Since I was currently living in central Illinois at the time, I figured I’d take a shot at crochet and maybe save some money on scarves and hats and such. I taught myself how to crochet, badly, and created some scarves, a few shawls, and one really horrible hat. The more I watched my Saturday morning shows, bookended by Fons and Porter, Eleanor Burns, and Sewing with Nancy, I realized that what I was really drawn to was quilting.
After convincing my mother to let me borrow her sewing machine, I started quilting my first small table runner. It was rather funny. My mother told me to not expect too much, reminding me it was only my first quilt. She had quilted before, including my favorite t-shirt quilt ever, so she knew what she was talking about. I started simple. A simple cubby hole pattern, shrunk down to fit a table runner, and not even a full table runner at that. It actually didn’t turn out as bad as I thought it would. My mom was shocked it had turned out as well as it did. On top of everything, I really enjoyed the process. I managed to finish the whole thing in a day, had a nice finished piece at the end of it, and felt accomplished. Not only that, but I had lost myself in the process, something I never managed to do with any other needle craft I’ve tried. I did not have to deal with any anxiety throughout the whole process, though it probably helped I didn’t tell anyone I was doing it at the time. I was hooked and went off to design my first quilt, a simple pixel art design for Nightmare Before Christmas. It took longer than a day to put together, but not by much and it also calmed the hell out of my anxiety which was going crazy at the time.
Shortly after finishing my first real quilt, my life changed completely again. I developed a nervous system disorder, which wouldn’t be diagnosed for almost a year, that left me shaking uncontrollably and unable to sleep for days on end. I was bounced from doctor to doctor, who threw me on various medications which ended up making things worse instead of better. I was going crazy. Throughout all of that though, I still had my quilting. I was working on two new quilts, albeit much more slowly since I barely had control over my movements. These quilts kept me going through the rough times, especially the thought of someone touching one of my quilts before it was finished. When the diagnosis finally came, multiple life changes came along with it, but I knew that quilting was here to stay.
If you are looking to start quilting (or any crafting for that matter) to help here are some suggestions:
- Borrow tools – this can be a rather expensive hobby, figure out if it is going to work for you before putting serious investment into it
- Start small – a table runner or pillow or something like that is a great small start
- Don’t expect it to replace medication and therapy – this is something in addition to, not in replacement of
- If you don’t want to teach yourself, find a mentor – Quilts of Valor is not only an excellent organization, but most chapters will also hook you up with a mentor to help you learn how to make quilts and will sometimes have donated items (see point #1)
Quilts are like a warm hug whenever you need one. When you get into quilting, you will always have quilts in your house and eventually branch out to giving them away. There is nothing like the feeling of giving someone a quilt. No matter how bad things are, they get better, even if it is just for a few minutes, when you see the face of someone receiving a homemade quilt.
