cut the (s)crap!
February 25, 2013Few more wanderings…
February 28, 2013Hi everyone,
and happy Wednesday to you!
Woke up early today (still dark outside) and starting my day with a good coffee and chatting with all of you – good way that start the day! 🙂
It has been a busy weekend and start of the week and I am still to go through all the pictures from our Guild meeting and send them to our web-master to be published on the web-site. Sorry about the delay! But what a great meeting that was! I loved seeing all the original collection quilts and their replicas – completely amazing! Here is just a few photos I took that show original and replica quilts side by side:
I especially like this one above that shows some of the members who worked on this half-square quilt, Ricky, Joyce and Betty together with our wonderful Historic Homes committee chair person and great champion of this wonderful effort of making replica quilts for the Museum, Theresa Utz! BRAVO to one and all who ever worked on these projects!
Another amazing quilt to see was a Bicentennial quilt made by members of our Guild – just beautiful!! Pictured here are some members who participated in making this beauty – Diana, Linda, Marlea and Diane (left to right). Another big BRAVO!
I do have much more photos and they deserve few more posts here, together with all the stories that go with them – something to work on!
In the meantime I just have to say – and I am sure I am sharing this feeling with all of you members – that I feel so proud and grateful to belong to our wonderful Guild! 🙂
And to finish this part – a big thank you to Jessica Johnson, curator of exhibit collections, for doing this presentation for us!
At the end of this wonderful meeting, I took a few close-ups of the antique quilts…I just wanted to have a visual memory of looking at the stitches that someone made so long ago… Think about it – the world was so different then and women were in a very different place in many ways…yet doing the same thing, for SOME of the same reasons, with the same love for it as we do now…isn’t that amazing?
And to bring this Wednesday wanderings kind of a full circle – lets talk for a moment about modern quilting! It is a movement that grows, it has a lot of talk around it and so many polarizing opinions…And if for nothing else, those reasons are enough to intrigue your attention. If you haven’t give it much attention so far, here is some good place to start – free lectures from the recent, first of its kind, modern quilt show called Quiltcon – take a look! And if you are a follower, or you are intrigued to understand it at least – I found this really thought provoking blog post by Tomas Knauer, followed by another addition just yesterday.
A lot to think about here – do tell what are your thoughts please! 🙂
I just might have few more Wednesday wanderings but daylight has arrived in the meantime and my dogs are waiting for that morning walk! 🙂
Have a wonderful day,
Marija
0 Comments
I read the Thomas Knauer pieces with interest. (Too bad he had to resort to so many expletives, I think. Not that I am offended, but I usually think there is a better word in the dictionary somewhere for what you are trying to say. Not always, of course, but usually. Perhaps he was blowing off steam.) I certainly don’t attach a ranking of any sort to the label “modern”, or to any other quilt label. To me the term “modern quilts” is more of a style category. I use it in the way I would categorize such as 30’s quilts, or Baltimore album quilts, or fan quilts, or … I suspect at QuiltCon there may have been a bit of “cliquishness” (is that a word?) going on with the usual “ours are better than yours” judgments happening. Since that is a relatively new show, and “modern quilting” is a new movement, I’ll bet that there was some jockeying for position and status going on. Are there such things as “quilt bullies”? Sadly I do sometimes overhear comments at quilt shops, quilt shows and sadly sometimes at our own guild meetings, that are hurtful and divisive. We all can appreciate the time and effort that goes into a quilt, whether it is a style that appeals to us or not.
Yes – I felt that he could have chosen a few different words here and there, but he did say on the top of the post that it was written all in one breath…so I guess he also chose NOT to change it? 🙂 However, the essence of his writing (as I understood it) did resonate with me a lot, and for few important points: 1. need to “label” things or styles is very understandable but so often mis-used and that is what always bothers me. It often creates un-necessary judgements, hurt feelings and as you said Mary Ellen, divisions – where there shouldn’t be any. As anything new, this modern quilting movement is full of those…for now.
2. the second reason is what he said about the real origin, in his opinion, of current modern quilting movement – for the large part it is from the desire of young people (again, for the most part) to MAKE something meaningful to them, as opposed to just go and buy STUFF. THAT I find beautiful, delightful and something to applaud to! Isn’t that why we ALL do it? That essence is very often forgotten in a hurry to label, judge or dismiss – something to keep in mind, I believe. 🙂
What do you all think?
Wow! Thought-provoking is right. The writer on the blog made some very good points, as do Mary Ellen and Marija. Myself, I have always wondered why many people, in general, feel the need to quickly label or categorize to the most specific degree that they do. I consider myself a quilter, first and foremost. I have made quilts in many different styles — modern, traditional, applique, whole cloth, etc. Some of them I have liked; others, not so much. They were all still quilts when I was finished with them. They all served the same purpose even if they looked different doing it. I believe musicians have it right, and we can learn from them. No matter the instrument or the style of music they play, they respect what each other do, and most, if asked, wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to sit and play or “jam” together. Pardon the pun, but the musical metaphor does play well. Keep in mind that once upon a time, Elvis and the Beatles were all the rage and scandal with their “modern” ideas and rock-and-roll music. Today, if you pay attention, you will hear each of their music being played on elevators and easy listening stations!
In all the quilt shows I have been to, I have seen some absolutely stunning quilts. I have seen quilts worth thousands of dollars. But none of them were prettier, or more valuable, than a quilt made by a grandma which wraps a child in security, or a Linus quilt helping to comfort and keep warm a sick infant, or one which we make ourselves for friends and family out of love. The next time we pick up our rotary cutters to start a new project, we need to keep in mind why we quilt: we quilt because we enjoy it. It is relaxing. It is fun. We can surround ourselves with beautiful things that are relevant to our experience. We can bring joy to the lives of others.
well said, Robi!