No Value Does Not Equal Free by Molli Sparkles (quilted by Jane Davidson)

It was SO GREAT to meet this guy! And really great to meet someone you’ve only “internet” known, and to find out that you really DO like them – he’s a classy guy! This quilt was the one he made in response to my WASWI campaign, and my friend Jane Davidson did the long arm honors. I was so thrilled to take a picture of us together that I missed getting details of the quilt, but you can see those on Molli’s blog.

Eichler Homes – Mickey Beebe (quilted by Tami Levin)

The magic in this quilt is all in the details… check out the echoed outlines on the houses, complete with little details like TV antennas. A perfect homage to the illustrations of the era, and probably my top pick of the show.

ZAG by Kari Anderson

The confident and careful use of color and pattern texture on this quilt is wonderful, and all that ORANGE made me happy!

Balancing Act by Stephanie Ruyle

I adore the mid-century vibe and coloring of this piece.

Bursting Blues by AnnMarie Cowley

AnnMarie is a member of my guild, and frankly, she is an artist to watch. She does some really innovative work, with impeccable craftsmanship. It was a thrill to see her work included.

Bump and Grind by Rebecca Burnett

This was hanging in the Northcott Booth, and stopped me in my tracks with all its ORANGE and teal goodness.

The Modern Strip Quilt by Vicki Ruebel and members of the Las Vegas MQG

This quilt is notable for the use of colored thread in the quilting to affect a change in the fabric color. Very cleverly done (although I thought the technique might render it a bit stiff for cuddling).

Itsy Bitsy Hexie Quilt by Sofia Locke

This was in the Youth category – great use of fussy-cut fabrics, and lovely craftsmanship. We should keep an eye on this young lady!

Graphics 1 by Kerri Green

I’m a text junkie. I love how the text was used, and it reminds me of great letterpress work.

Falling by Kathy York

This one just made me smile. Sometimes that’s the most important thing Lovely accent quilting done by hand, too.

Geometric Text by Nicole Daksiewicz

Another fine exploration of text, and I appreciate the skill in keeping the words aligned throughout the pieces.

The Color of Squares by Juli Smith

How could I not love all that ORANGE? Great graphic qualities too.

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There were several highlights for me, mostly around re-connecting with friends, or meeting new people, but I would have to say top on my list was seeing Chawne Kimber’s work in person, and then getting to really, deeply, talk with her. She is a lovely human – generous of her time, thoughtful with her words, and funny as hell. I also saw her speak on a panel about diversity in quilting, and she is formidably in command of both historical and current issues surrounding the race and gender conversations in our world. I am even more of a fan now.

Chawne uses her needle skills to say important things. She nails it with the razor sharp focus and acumen of an editorial cartoonist. Political cartoons require a decathlon of skills: you have to be in the thick of the conversation that is going on right now, understand its history, be able to tease out the most important (and likely least seen) nuances, write them large in a tight sentence or two, and then illustrate the heck out of them, exaggerating only certain details for specific effect. And do all of it in a timely fashion so they don’t look like last week’s joke.

Chawne had two quilts in the show:

“The One for Eric” by Chawne Kimber, hand quilting by Chawne Kimber, longarm machine quilting by Pamela J. Cole

In Chawne’s words:

The improvisational patchwork here is meant to remind one of graffiti scrawled impulsively on a wall in the shadows. Hand-quilting in winding trails of various reds invokes brick and blood.

A quilt in my “elegy” series, this one is for Eric Garner who was killed in a chokehold by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo on July 17, 2014 on Staten Island. His suspected crime was selling loose cigarettes on a street corner. Recorded in a viral video on a smart phone, these were Eric’s last words.

For me, these words are filled with meaning beyond the incident.

Some detail:

DETAIL: “The One for Eric” by Chawne Kimber, hand quilting by Chawne Kimber, longarm machine quilting by Pamela J. Cole

Her second quilt:

“Cotton Sophisticate” by Chawne Kimber, hand quilting by Chawne Kimber, longarm quilting by Pamela J. Cole

In her words:

“In essence, I am a sophisticated cotton picker.” This is a summary quote in southerner Eartha Kitt’s autobiography, Alone with Me, that has myriad (direct and indirect) meanings I identify with. This improvisational patchwork and kantha style handquilting is a direct callback to the make-do utility quilts made by my great-grandmother on a former cotton plantation in Wendowee, Alabama, at the turn of the last century. A small bit of visible mending is a love note to her.

Details:

Thank you for this work, Chawne. PLEASE keep ’em coming.

*

Chawne’s work and other great political quilts from QuiltCon were featured in an LA Times article here.

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Red, by Teresa Coates (quilting by Jolene Knight). Photo by Bill Volckening

According to Bill Volckening:

“Red is love, war, passion, and blood. This quilt explores the color red with elements of Pop Art, Matisse, Rorschach, red and white quilts and Traditional Hawaiian quiltmaking. It is made with hand needleturn appliqué, computer guided and free-motion machine quilting, and a few randomly placed rows of big-stitch hand quilting.”

Red (detail), by Teresa Coates (quilting by Jolene Knight). Photo by Bill Volckening

And why am I quoting Bill Volckening? Because he is the producer on this one. Bill is a respected collector, appraiser, historian, and all around champion of quilting. He conceptualized this quilt, a rather clever mash-up of artistically notable inspirations, then commissioned Teresa Coates to bring it to life, and hired Jolene Knight to complete his vision.

Why is this important? Because the makers are named, acknowledged, and compensated. While the fine art world seldom names the studio slaves who create the master’s work, over the history of quilting we have fought hard to be recognized by our own names. When we create something, we are no longer anonymous, or only known by our husbands’ names (like the all too common “Mrs. George Jones” of early 1900s quilts).

We are experiencing a boom in quilting, the kind of boom that requires us to delegate some of the work. In my case, I’m just not interested in growing my machine quilting skills to the level of the deeply talented artists I hire to help me. By acknowledging our helpers we maintain one of the best things that quilting produces (and has always produced) which is community.

The fine art world has always done its business with a lot less soul, and these days, I can see some of that creeping into the places where fine art and the quilting world intersect. I hope that, instead of fine art assimilating quilting into its model, quilting instead pushes back and resists, holding onto what makes it great, and changes fine art in the process. This quilt is certainly a fantastic example of that idea in action.

Here’s a great shot of Red, and yesterday’s #lovewinsquilt and Green Cross Quilt hanging at Modern Domestic in their “QuiltCon Rejects” selection this month:

Photo by Bill Volckening

If these are the rejects, I hope to see some very important and great work at QuiltCon.

******

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I’d like to share a couple of quilts with you that I think are important from a historical aspect. Fiber has a long history as an appropriate (and appropriated) medium for discussing socio-political topics, so it makes sense that contemporary quilters continue to use needle and thread to give further voice to causes they care about. The quilt history books remember many groundbreaking quilts, and I hope these end up being documented as part of that lineage. Another interesting thing to note: while socio-political quilts often engage feminist ideas, the following examples are notable for not being limited to issues that are solely of interest to women.

As an aside, these quilts were rejected from QuiltCon West 2016. I know about them because I’m in the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, and am so very fortunate to share a community with the artists who made these works. While I realize that QuiltCon cannot possibly accept every quilt offered, I think they are the best venue to create a category in future shows that is invitational and perhaps curated by a quilt historian, which shows the intersection of quilts and socio-political commentary. After all, the MQG aims to be at the cutting edge of contemporary quilting, and I can’t imagine anything more contemporary than art made as statement about the important issues of the day. They have also already displayed several really important works by artists such as Chawne Kimber (scroll down at this link for some of her powerful word quilts) and Jacquie Gering, so I think this could be a natural expansion of mission for them.

And so to the quilts:

First up, #lovewinsquilt: a celebration of love, equality and optimism. Spearheaded by Kristin Link of SewMamaSew, it’s a collaborative effort from 37 quilt artists. I think this quilt is as historic as the Supreme Court decision it celebrates, that of guaranteeing the right to same sex marriage.

Photo by Kristin Link

In Kristin’s words:

“On the day of the supreme court decision, 6/26/15, I posted on my personal Facebook page, “I can’t get rainbow quilts out of my head, who wants to make a block?” By the end of the day there were dozens of volunteers. Everyone I know who cares about the issue was so high on love that day that I think we all wanted to express it in the best way we know how. I ended up getting 36 blocks exactly, so I put together the top and the back (photo attached in case you haven’t seen it) and then Charlene Trieloff quilted it and sent it back to me to bind. So it really is a big group effort!”

Row 1: Julie McMahon, Susanne Woods, Megan Cavagnaro Dye, Mary Abreu, Gabrien Chaney, Rossie Hutchinson
Row 2: Paloma Link, Mo Bedell, Shea Henderson, MaryAnn Morsette, Heather Jones, Susan Manson
Row 3: Amy Gunson, Elizabeth Dackson, Kristy Daum, Cheryl Arkinson, Laura Harden, Susan Beal
Row 4: Alissa Haight Carlton, Amy Friend, Angela Milliman, Lauren Hawley, Michelle Freedman, Cherie Grzych
Row 5: Heather Givans, Dan Rouse, Becca Jubie, Juline Bajada, Juline Bajada, John Adams
Row 6: Denyse Schmidt, Kristi McDonough, Susan Fuller, Carla Crim, Monica Solorio Snow, Nicole Daksiewicz
Quilted by Charlene Trieloff

Photo by Kristin Link

Next is Gail Weiss‘s Green Cross Quilt (#cannabisquilt), which celebrates the 2015 legalization of marijuana in Oregon.

Photo by Gail Weiss

Gail wanted to create a sweet, functional object that was in direct juxtaposition to the dark and seedy connotations of violent, drug-dealing crime. The quilt was started before the historic decision, but she hustled to finish it on the date it went into law. The green crosses signify the symbol for marijuana dispensaries (and incidentally, they are the symbol for a standard pharmacy across Europe). Gail said she wanted to make a quilt that was beyond merely pretty, one that meant something. She wanted to use fabric to soften the line between the political and the useful, to make a scary thing (for some) less so.

In Gail’s words:

“Pot is not for everyone, but it’s a wonderful option to pharmaceutical drugs for some people, especially those that have severe reactions to medications.”

Many people get great relief and comfort from pot. I think Gail used the comfort aspect of quilting brilliantly to illustrate the concept of her quilt.

Photo by Gail Weiss

Tomorrow: another important quilt, but for a completely different reason!

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Mandy and I met a couple of years ago at Quilt Market, and I was privileged to see a few sneaks of these quilts while she was working on them. I loved seeing how she interpreted the things that fascinate her through quilting.

This is a really interesting book, full of inspiration to create work from the world around you. Mandy’s background in classical archeology is evident in the projects, but it’s her love of classical art that shines through. It’s great to see a book that’s as much about making your OWN ideas as it is about making the projects offered.

I recently returned from a trip to Europe and, in my wanderings, found a few things that could definitely inspire a wanderlust quilt or two:

These are the columns on the front of the Basilica of St. Denis in Paris, France. Each column and base was carved with a different repeating pattern. I could imagine making a row-by-row based quilt that uses these carved textures as starting points for the design.

It’s also easy to see that many of the motifs we use in quilting have been in the design canon for centuries – this building was mostly finished in the 1200s! Check out the double wedding rings on the third column from the left!

Below is another image that gave me some more quilty inspiration. This one is a tiled mosaic bench from Gaudi’s Park Guell in Barcelona, Spain.

I see applique, border prints, piecework, and prairie points!

It you’d like to own a signed copy of this sweet book, go here to purchase it directly from Mandy (and if you want to know how the profit slices on a book, read here).

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Well, last week, I finally finished the one I had been working on just for me!

I used an embroidery pattern by Shiny Happy World, and made a row of cute robots for each side of the bag:

For those who like to keep score on crazy, this is my 18th one

One thing about making so many of them is that I had time to ponder exactly how I wanted mine to function. So I decided to add a couple of modifications, using some pretty fold-over elastic, like this one from Babyville.

These get sewn in between steps 3 and 4 of the original Sew Together Bag pattern, after you make the markings for step 4, but before you sew those marks. No I’m not sharing the pattern because you should buy your own copy!

On the far outer side of one pocket, I positioned the elastic about a 1/4” up from the markings for step 4, and sewed horizontally down the center line of the fold-over elastic. I then played with some groupings of Clover Wonder Clips to map out where I could sew a few vertical lines for stability. Yes, I have a lot of ORANGE clips because kind friends have traded me for their favorite colors!

On the far opposite side, I ran the elastic along the middle of the pocket horizontally, and sewed it vertically at intervals intended to hold small threads and tubes of Tulip Needles (love these needles!)

Both of these modifications have allowed me to keep more pockets free for other things, and it made the clips easier to grasp, as opposed to digging them out of a pocket.

And a last tip, designed by my friend Monica… always designate one pocket for all the metal items you carry, and color code the zipper to help you remember. In her bags, metal things go in the gray pocket. I have enjoyed making all the zippers different to help with sorting, but gray=metal is genius!

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It happens. The well dries up. Your creative mojo chases the sunset out of town and you feel like you’ve lost a dear friend. How to get it back becomes your next big priority. And lucky us, my friend Carrie Bloomston has just written a delightful book chock full of prompts and exercises to get your creativity back into gear!

This is what Carrie has to say about her book:

You were born with a creative spark inside. Do you look at yourself now and wonder if the spark has gone out? Ignite that inner fire with the 30 engaging exercises, fun activities, inspirational images, and motivating ideas in this book. Learn what your Little Spark of creative passion looks like, how to capture it, and how to make room for it in your life. Read the book cover-to-cover and use it as a month-long creative roadmap, or just dip into the exercises as your time and inclination allow. Either way, you will change your life.

She also made a sweet video trailer!

The book is full of space for you to write in and make yours. It’s full of ideas and questions, and peppered with quotes from some really inspiring people. And of, course, lusciously stuffed with beautiful imagery. This image tells me I need to buy more ORANGE pens!

My favorite chapters in the book so far are Chapter 2, about making your creative space calm; Chapter 23, about the rhythm and mastery in repetition; and Chapter 26, about taking a day off (this post is coming to you while I’m on vacation, through the wonders of auto scheduling!)

If you can’t wait, or want to gift it for the holidays, it’s available on Amazon or from your favorite indie bookseller (mine is Powell’s!)

Now go to your studio and play!

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Fireworks, by my sweet son, from a long time ago.

Yesterday, Kay B left a comment on a WASWI post, and asked this: “My question is when do you consider yourself an “artist”? If you develop your own pattern? When you properly following someone else’s pattern? How about hand quilted vs. long arm quilted? I have seen many things listed for sale online that are lower quality that are charging more than for more quality crafted items that it is no wonder the general public is afraid to pay the asking price for hand crafted items. How does an appraiser determine a value?”

Before I tackle the big one about considering one’s self an artist, I’ll answer the easier one about appraisals.

Certified Quilt Appraisers have been rigorously trained through programs such as this one in the US run by AQS, the American Quilter’s Society. (Note that this is good place to look if you need to hire an appraiser, too.) Armed with that training, an appraiser can determine where a quilt fits in the current canon of knowledge, and value them accordingly. What factors matter? Many factors, including craftsmanship, ubiquity/rarity, geography/history, and the renown of the maker. For instance, I had a few quilts appraised some years ago, then shortly after, was published in some magazines and earned a ribbon at a national show. My appraiser informed me that the publishings and the ribbon both added to my value, and that my appraisals would now be higher because of them. Thus it follows that the quilts made by the acknowledged masters and superstars of our industry will appraise higher than the version of them that less famous people might make. Sort of like a doodle by Picasso is worth more than the one done by the sweetest toddler in your family (even if you can’t really tell the difference). And yes – it doesn’t really account for the emotional attachment you have for the toddler’s work!

So with this in mind, when do you get to say you’re an artist? My opinion is this:

You get to say you’re an artist the first time you pick up a pencil, or crayon, or needle, or hammer, or lump of dirt and try to make something out of it. WAIT, I hear you say…. that misshapen lump of clay that came home from 2nd grade that was supposed to be a pumpkin is not ART. No, it might not be. There is a rather extensive establishment that loves to wrangle with the question of “Is it ART?” and they like to be the keepers of that conversation, so I’m going to just let them wrangle it. And I’m guessing they will say no, the “pumpkin” is not art, unless of course Picasso made it… and… and… you get my drift.

Wile E Coyote and Road Runner. Lines by Chuck Jones, colors by my sweet son.

I’m talking about YOU. In my mind, if you are a MAKER, you are an ARTIST. The intention to make with your hands is an ARTISTIC intention, regardless of what you then make. I know that for some it’s a huge struggle to claim the title because I struggled too. I’ve never been that great at drawing, and so when I drew misshapen things as a child I was told I was no good at art. But I’ve since decided that my elementary school teacher didn’t really have the authority to tell me what I am. I successfully earned an AA in art by working hard at learning to draw (I had an excellent teacher, but I’m still middling at it). I got my BA in Sculpture because constructing stuff makes more sense to me. I got my MFA in Fiber because by then I had figured out that playing with fiber is my superpower. And I still hate to draw. And that just no longer matters.

I don’t think you need to be making original patterns to call yourself an artist. I don’t think it matters if you quilt by hand, machine or check (but I do think you have to acknowledge the long arm artist when you hire one). I think you just need to MAKE. Make what interests you, make for profit, make for love, but just MAKE.

As for the pricing differences one sees online? Those appraisal factors are in play, but so are the factors of what the market will bear and the self confidence of the maker. An honest pricing calculates the time and materials and takes into account the artist’s skill. Some people don’t charge enough to cover that. Others do. The wide range in price vs. quality in the handcrafted world is no different than in other industries… for instance there are well made good-value cars and expensive rattletraps out there. That’s the joy of a free market. As a buyer, you get to decide what to exchange your moola for.

But back to the ARTIST conversation before I leave you. You’ll see me talking about “your studio” and some of you might think “right… that would be my dining room table.” I refer to you and your making this way because, to me, you ARE an artist. The space doesn’t matter. The size of the machine doesn’t matter. The fact that you might do it with kiddos underfoot or cats in your lap doesn’t matter. There isn’t a magic door you have to go through to be an artist. You just have to MAKE.

So let’s go do some of that! MAKE, MAKE, MAKE…

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Early in my college art education, an art history professor assigned us a museum trip. We were charged with visiting one of three specific paintings, and to spend 15 minutes with the work while writing down everything we could about it: composition, color, subject matter, and anything else that popped into our heads. She said that the 15 minute part was imperative, and to time ourselves.

Thus, I dutifully sat for 15 minutes in front of a painting at the Getty. It took less than a minute to note all the big stuff, but by the end of the session I had actually noticed the subtle shading of the sky, the patterning of leaves, the delicate blush on cheek – all things I never notice on a quick pass. It was such a richer experience. For so many of us, a trip to see art is a high speed smorgasbord, where we see the broad strokes and big ideas, but we miss the details because we’re speeding to the next one. So I have a new rule (since that assignment) when I’m in a museum… I might take a fast pass around a room, but I will choose one work and spend TIME with it.

So with that in mind, you’ll understand why I want to share a new iPad app with you… it’s called Art Scrambles, and it’s an app that brings you beautiful works of fine art as puzzles.

Above is Jan Van Eyck‘s Arnolfini Portrait as a puzzle. You get to choose the shape and size of the pieces you want to play with (I use bigger shapes when I want to relax, and the smallest when I want to be challenged). The app is infused with subtle orchestral sounds, a sweetly clean interface, and best of all, ART. There are well known works that you would expect to find, like the Mona Lisa, but there are also a lot of works that you might not have seen, and discovering them through the use of the puzzle format is such a delight.

For instance, on Arnolfini and his wife (above), it took playing the puzzle for me to notice the fruit on the window sill (below). And I have actually seen this painting in person! (psst… it’s 24” x 36” – so much smaller than you’d expect!)

I have studied Pieter Breugel the Elder in passing as all art history students do, but to work one of his paintings as a puzzle is to really understand just how much he was interested in hierarchy.

There are also artists represented in the app that I wasn’t aware of. One is Utagawa Hiroshige, and all of his works seem to be perfectly tuned for puzzle solving. I think I would have missed the subtle transitions of color if I hadn’t been searching for the right place to play the pieces! Look at the way the background fades from red to cream to green in Plums, below.

Anyway – if you have an iPad, go grab this app – it’s free and blissfully free of ads. It has add-on packs of more puzzles too – some a sampler of works from an era like the Renaissance, others just one artist. There are three packs just for Vermeer! Heaven!

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So I attempted to inch the major tasks forward all at the same time, and the result was that I was even more scattered. A great experiment in process, but in the end, not one that fit me well. Remember what I say about process – it’s the one that works for you that counts!

After a couple of days of feeling like a juggling clown, I was ready to take to the couch with an attack of the vapors, and possibly a box of chocolates (I would have gone to See’s, and had them hand-pack my favorite dark morsels – hellooooo Dark Chocolate Butterchew!). But instead, I decided to fill my mind instead of my tummy – and I headed for the Getty Center.

It would be easy to list the downsides* to living in Los Angeles, but being close to several world-class museums is not one of them. As they change their special exhibitions often, you can bet that on any given day there is more new art to look at than you can handle. This particular day was bright and sunny, the perfect day for refilling the well.

Refilling the well. Sharpening the saw. Feeding your head. When you live a life of creative output, there must be a balancing input. Yin and yang, circle of life, field and fallow. If we don’t occasionally feast, we will hit creative famine. Finding inspiration is a necessary part of artistic endeavor, and it is critical to your creative well-being to make this just as important as any other task in the studio.

Image courtesy of the Getty – Vermeer’s Woman in Blue Reading a Letter

My reason for choosing the Getty was the young lady above, visiting our fair city for six very short weeks. She is Vermeer’s Woman in Blue Reading a Letter. I was fortunate to be among sparse crowds as I absorbed the painting’s mysteries, and spent about 20 minutes just looking deeply at the work.

She is lovely. While I’m picky about the realistic painting I like, every Vermeer I’ve had the privilege of getting my nose up to has taken my breath away. It’s not just that the painting technique is sublime, it’s the immediacy of moment that he captures. They feel as un-posed as Cartier-Bresson’s street photography, and they are so very enigmatic. Who is she? What’s in that letter? Is it good news or bad? I love getting lost in the questions a work asks me. (The Getty asked their blog followers to write the opening line of the letter).

And then there are the technical marvels. The tiny flecks of light added to the studs on the chairs to give them dimension. The myriad shades of blue – and not just in her jacket. They are deep, dark, bright, shiny, sunny, airy… how many ways can you use a blue? They are in the chairs, the finial, the walls, the cloth, even reflected into the envelope on the table. There is tension in her hands, and a slight parting of her lips. Is it a gasp of surprise? An exhalation on the cusp of despair? Vermeer allows us the room to craft our own story for her.

After my time with the lady, I re-visited a few favorite pieces, and then ate my lunch in the gardens while getting some sunshine on my skin. Head filled with ideas. Tummy filled with healthier fare than those chocolates. Heart filled with beauty. Art always makes things right in my world.

*And then I hit the traffic filled freeways to get home

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