GAAQG homecoming with Meg Cox

by Linda Theil

Journalist Meg Cox discusses "Making Meaning" at GAAQG. Washtenaw Community College, Ypsilanti MI July 16, 2022.

Today the Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild celebrated its first in-person guild meeting since January 2020 in the newly renovated auditorium at Washtenaw Community College in Ypsilanti, Michigan. I accessed the event via Zoom thanks to the GAAQG continuing virtual meetings.

Meg Cox was the keynote speaker. As a journalist specializing in the quilt beat, Cox's bonafides are long and exemplary. In the first of two presentations, Cox spoke about her journey as a journalistic specialist in quilts and the direction of quilting today. She touted digital fabric printing and hand sewing as two seemingly divergent aspects of modern quilting.

As a quilt journalist, Cox has been there, done it all, and wrote the book. As a former Wall Street Journal reporter, she has a keen eye for trends and the financial aspects of the quilting world. In 2008 at a national quilt market Cox found herself online behind a woman who was opening a small quilt shop in a tiny town in Missouri; Cox asked if she could shadow the shop and owner in her first year of business. Jenny Doan said, "Sure!"

Making Meaning

Cox's second talk, titled "Making Meaning" featured her consuming devotion to celebration and ritual in life. She has written four books on family traditions and ritual. "We are wired for ritual," Cox said. "We are wired for pattern and repetition." She finds impetus for ritual in: milestones, friendship, healing, and problem solving.

Cox cites a ritual for healing that had an enormous impact when her husband passed away several years ago. As a result of her bereavement, she could not attend a Quilt Alliance board meeting on her schedule. At that meeting Moda Fabrics president Mark Dunn brought fabric squares for the board members to share their sympathy for Cox through quiltmaking.

"Two weeks later, a box showed up," Cox said. "I opened that box and I just lost it -- that quilt was so present, so perfect for me."

At July 16, 2022 GAAQG meeting, Meg Cox (on left) displays bereavement quilt.

Cox had a message to quilters who share their joy and sorrow in this way:

"Don't stop."

Meg Cox's rules for making rituals and ceremonies that are unforgetable:

Give your ritual activity a name -- be creative.
Go with the flow, and build on that -- be flexible.
A ceremony is words plus action; a toast is a ceremony. Celebrate, and deepen a connection.
Pre-plan the unexpected. If you plan to throw fat quarters to your audience, don't forget to pack.
Make it personal.

"We can choose to make meaning of our lives day after day after day," Cox said. "Don't just live your lives, celebrate your lives!"

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