Heritage, Creativity and Love by Kathreen Ricketson–a Sew, You've Always Wanted to Quilt guest post

I don’t really think of myself as a quilter. Which is funny because I make a lot of quilts and have written two books on quilting. I think of myself as a maker and designer and artist who happens to enjoy the medium of working with quilts. Making quilts, sewing and crafting is more to me than a pastime or hobby or even a business, it is a link to my heritage as a woman. My mother is a crafter, as was her mother her mother before her. They were thrifty women whose job was to raise a family and keep a tight household budget, while at the same time making sure their children and husband were dressed nicely and had good healthy food to eat. They were proud of their role as homemaker, but it was hard work too. They sewed and then mended all their own and their families clothing, they knitted sweaters and hats, they baked all their food from scratch, they grew their own vegetables, kept chooks for eggs and meat as well as managing the budget and the house repairs and they did it all without all the fancy technology that we use today. I find it fascinating and inspiring just thinking about it. Imagine spending a whole day laundering the sheets or using a treadle sewing machine to make dresses and suits for the family or saving all those flour and feed sacks to make a quilt!

Lately I have thinking about the importance of the role of the homemaker. It seems to have been discarded in recent years, being a stay-at-home mother has been a difficult role to be proud of. Our life has become so rushed, so busy, so full, that those ‘old fashioned’ skills of being thrifty, making-do, home-cooking, gardening, sewing and mending are being lost. Which is why I do what I do, why I blog about craft and work from home and make my own laundry powder and why I sew and design quilts.

Many thanks, Kathreen. For more exciting quilting posts to come, keep checking the Sew, You’ve Always Wanted to Quilt gallery here: