Several times in the past few months since my wife and I decided to purchase a Quilt Shop it has become very clear to me that “Quilters are Crazy!”
I do not mean this in any negative way either.
www.Dictionary.com defines Crazy like this: cra·zy 
[krey-zee] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation adjective, -zi·er, -zi·est, noun, plural -zies.
–adjective
| 1. | mentally deranged; demented; insane. |
| 2. | senseless; impractical; totally unsound: a crazy scheme. |
| 3. | Informal. intensely enthusiastic; passionately excited: crazy about baseball. |
| 4. | Informal. very enamored or infatuated (usually fol. by about): He was crazy about her. |
| 5. | Informal. intensely anxious or eager; impatient: I’m crazy to try those new skis. |
| 6. | Informal. unusual; bizarre; singular: She always wears a crazy hat. |
| 7. | Slang. wonderful; excellent; perfect: That’s crazy, man, crazy. |
| 8. | likely to break or fall to pieces. |
| 9. | weak, infirm, or sickly. |
| 10. | having an unusual, unexpected, or random quality, behavior, result, pattern, etc.: a crazy reel that spins in either direction. |
When I say that “Quilters are Crazy” I am thinking of “intensely enthusiastic; passionately excited; sometimes impatient; wonderful; excellent; and yes even a little bit unusual and bizarre” at times. All of these in a good way though!
Quilting in general requires some of these characteristics. Good quilting demands several of these.
“Intense enthusiasm” was shown during our Grand Opening weekend earlier this summer and again most recently during our last Shop Hop. Quilters are not afraid to travel long distances to get something they want. Their desire to find the perfect fabric for the project at hand is a driving force. The intense drive to get a bargain is just as strong as well!
The bond between quilters and their stash can be considered “bizarre,” but “intensely enthusiastic and passionate” at the same time.
Quilt Shop Owners for the most part are also quilters, and let me tell you that there is nothing more “bizarre, impractical or demented” as a room full of Quilt Shop Owners. I can tell you this first hand now having just attended our second Quilt Market in the short half year since we purchased Windmill City Quilts.
This most recent event was the International Quilt Market in Houston, Texas running from October 26 to 28.
The event hosted over 1000 vendors and gave the shop owners an opportunity to get a first look at the fabric lines that our customers will be working with in the months ahead. We also got the chance to see products from companies that are not on our current vendor lists and to try out some of the gizmos and gadgets that make quilting fun.
We picked up a few of these things and when you are in the shop next please ask to see some of the new “toys” we found.
The Quilt Market started out with the perfect example of the craziness of quilters. The “Sample Spree” was the thrill of a Shop Hop combined with the excitement of being in a room full of like-minded friends and neighbors facing the chance of getting a tremendous bargain or two thrown in for good measure. All of this pushed into a short one hour time slot created a heart pounding thrill like few others.
OK it was not that big of a deal but it sounds more fun the way I just described it!
Now for the personal example.
I feel no shame in calling quilters crazy. Why? First off, since my wife and I purchased the store, I have learned how to sew more than the occasional button on my shirt sleeve, I have gained some knowledge of what a “fat quarter” is, and have even finished a quilt of my own, and have just recently learned (not perfected – as my daughter so kindly pointed out) the art of binding the edges of a quilt.
I have helped cut the pieces of some other quilts but have not set aside the time to finish any other ones on my own yet.
So since I now consider myself a “quilter” I feel I can talk about “us” from the perspective of an insider. This past weekend, I proved a couple of things to myself.
Number one, I am able to drive long distances, with little sleep, all in the name of education and trying to run a business. Did you know that we drove from our Chicago suburb down to Houston for this market. That was almost 1200 miles each way. We left home Thursday afternoon and returned Sunday night. Do the math ~ now if that ain’t crazy then nothing is!
Another thing that was proven along the same time, I am not as young as I used to be! Driving that many hours and that many miles is probably never really fun. But when we first got married we found we could make trips three and four states away without a lot of aches and pains. Not any more. I am not the oldest quilter by any stretch of the definition, but I am definitely not young enough to make too many of these trips too often.
Another thing that really needed no proof but I got anyway, was that Quilters are GREAT PEOPLE! We met several really nice folks during our short trip and in a blog to come I hope to tell you about some of these people. Hopefully, we can see some of these folks again some time, but if this was the only opportunity to meet them, it was worth the trip!
OK, like the name I decided to use at the top of our blog tells you, these are some of my rambling thoughts. I will do my best to quilt them all together in a coherent fashion from time to time. Hope you enjoy what you read here.
However, just like with making a quilt, more often than not, the quilter is not concerned with what future generations will think of the project. We just do if because we love it and we are having fun with it.
Hope to see you soon at the store, but if you are not able to make it, have fun with my “Quilted Ramblings.”
Quilted Ramblings 