Originally Posted by Laura in Montreal

Is quilting a hobby or an art? In a conversation about retirement plans with a non-quilter, I mentioned that I plan on doing a degree in Fine Arts (Fabric Arts) to help me with my quilting. The utter astonishment of the non-quilter threw me for a loop. He asked why I would go to the trouble of getting a university degree “just for some old hobby.” I love traditional quilts because they comfort me, but I also like unconventional ones, having been influenced by Beth and Jeffrey Gutcheon’s The Quilt Design Workbook, published in 1976 (and even made the quilt on the cover). My question is this: do you consider quilting a hobby or an art, or both?