Welcome Sacred Threads visitors and enjoy the photos.
Back home and done all the mundane: unpacking, grocery shopping, some laundry, a bit of lawn-mowing. That separation or distinction between the sacred and the mundane makes each more special and life better, I think. We can be more aware of the sacred times in our lives and we can do the same for the mundane. That awareness is what makes each valuable and important. Being aware of the mundane keeps it as part of us rather than something to be done with. It can’t all be mundane, and it can’t all be sacred either. That’s life!
The quilts at Sacred Threads were arranged by shared themes that all lives have: joy, inspiration, grief, spirituality, healing. Inside each theme, expressions by the quilters on the moments they experienced. Might have been a turning point in an illness or the long journey; a death; a birth; a release found in nature; a strength found in religion, love, family. All these very human moments where awareness made a part of life sacred.
I use sacred in a pretty general sense. It doesn’t matter what church you hang your hat in (regardless of what some may say). I mean it to be – apart from the ordinary or secular. Perhaps something that makes you feel – there’s more than just this.
What I liked best about all of the quilts was that their makers needed to tell a story. Some of the quilts were very engaging even without the statements, but in this setting, the statements helped go beyond the colors and the shapes. I found it interesting that the quilts I was most drawn to visually often had totally grabbing (both good and sad) stories to tell, but they were successful in telling it before I got to the words. Exuberance, blackness, pain, seeking: the designs and colors told the tale. Other pieces left it for the viewer to piece together the image and the ideas.
Take home message? If you feel the need to make something because of your own sacred or mundane moments, go with it. Doesn’t matter the medium. Use the making to be aware and focused and share that with someone. Your experience may help someone or the idea of expressing one’s experience may help someone do it themselves.
Coming back to the Sacred Threads Quilt Show: what an opportunity to concentrate and make available these works. Some of the participants may not normally make things for exhibit. What a way to share and give others a chance to encounter these sacred moments. Thank you all.
