Quilting has been passed down from mothers to children for generations.
On Monday at the UNM Continuing Education building, almost 100 members of the New Mexico Quilters' Association gathered around an exhibition of quilts that were judged in a quilting contest at the State Fair.
Since 1974, the NMQA has been gathering people from around the state to share the passion and skills behind quilting.
Every year, members also collaborate to create a huge balloon-themed quilt that is raffled at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
Member Cris Paulson has been part of the NMQA for many years.
"Quilters are great people," she said. "We encourage everybody's work and their effort."
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Paulson said quilting is an age-old and comforting process.
"It's scientifically proven that when women get together in a group, their endorphins shoot up," Paulson said. "It's like happy juice."
Along with their fundraising efforts, NMQA holds many events exhibiting local quilters' works. They also donate time, materials and skills in the Albuquerque community so that low-income families can be warm during the winter.
In addition to offering classes about quilting techniques and professional guest workshops, the NMQA also has a vast resource library of more than 900 items, including books, magazines and newspapers with every kind of quilting tip and trick.
Though modern quilting is more of a hobby, Paulson said it used to be a tactic of survival.
"If you were a homestead and lived in a sod hut in Kansas, you needed quilts to keep warm," she said. "You had to be out in the fields in the summer months, but the winter months were spent making blankets for your family's survival."
Today, quilting is less about surviving and more about expressing love and friendship, she said.
"In the olden days, people would move from the East and take a friendship quilt, because they probably wouldn't ever see their family again in their lifetime when they went out West," she said. "That quilt was a tangible reminder to them that 'Somebody in this world loves me.'"
She said people today spend more time online than with other people.
"We feel love mainly through our sense of touch, and a quilt is something that you can wrap around you and feel warm and loved," Paulson said. "That's the power of a quilt. It has the power to communicate love, acceptance, caring and support to someone."
More information about the Quilters' Association can be found at Nmqa.nm.org.
