last call for Quilt National entries

August 29, 2010 – 12:51 pm

Quilt National is an international biennial show of art quilts. The deadline for submitting is September 10. The purpose of the show is to stretch the limits of quiltmaking and see what people come up with. It is about innovation, not necessarily craftsmanship or making functional quilts. It is also not about narrative. I didn’t get this the first time I submitted and sent in a submission that was inextricably linked to its narrative. I got a big, fat No, Thank You from the judges.

Now I get it. The judges see your piece, a detail of it and hear the title of it. No other explanation, period. I submitted for 2007 and my Tankini quilt (above and below) was accepted. This quilt was made up of two pieces in which one was suspended by the quilting of the other. I was inspired to make it when I was a new mother, at the age of 40, looking for a swimsuit.

We were too busy with a fabric line to submit for QN 2009 but I am planning to take a break from working on the next book and commissions and will submit this time around.

I get a little frustrated and paranoid about the rules. They say that you can only show your work on your website and that you will be disqualified if your quilt appears on Facebook or someone else’s website. Huh?  I’ve seen images that we’ve put on the FunQuilts website used all over the place including wallpaper of blogs without us knowing about it. I don’t think it’s realistic to think that one can control images that are placed anywhere on the internet. I just don’t get their reasoning. So because I am so confused and paranoid about the rules (having suffered the consequences before) I’m not showing any images here but will tell you what I’m working on. If I don’t get in I’ll post pictures later.

To me these competitions (and this is the only competition in quilting that I’ve ever submitted anything for) are not about winning or getting accepted. They are about pushing the pause button on whatever you normally do and trying something different. As a maker of functional quilts, this is a chance every two years to do something highly conceptual.

Here’s my thinking: it’s a long shot that I’m going to get in so I should make something that is really meaningful to me and the process of making it should in some way be therapeutic or helpful or fun or entertaining to me. The judges aren’t paying for the supplies or putting the hours in. This is about me having something to say. Of course I want to get accepted but it’s got to be with a piece that feels authentic to me or it’s a waste of time.

So this time I’m making the first thing I’ve ever made about my lungs. I began thinking last year about wanting to make something that is about my lifelong struggle with my asthma but instead of making it about the downer of the illness, I wanted to make something positive about how my lungs have withstood half a century of this cruel illness. It’s a very conceptual piece with unexpected materials and other than the title “My Beautiful Lungs” no one will be able to look at it and know it’s about asthma. To them I’m just hoping that it will be interesting or beautiful. Thinking about it and working on it, however, has been really powerful for me though so no matter what the judges decide about it, I’ve done something for myself that’s meaningful. That to me, is the point of competitions. It’s an opportunity to challenge yourself. It’s not about trying to figure out how to please someone else. Don’t we all do too much of that already?

By Weeks | Posted in design, experiences, inspiration, quilting, sewing | Comments (4)

the best presents

August 26, 2010 – 9:44 am

It’s my birthday!

I’m 49 in calendar years but still feel like I’m 30. In my mind I’m always 30. I just don’t feel like I thought I would at 49, which I think is a great thing.That’s a gift right there.

It took me way too many birthdays to realize that the best gifts are sometimes those you give yourself. So here’s my plan for today:

Today I’m giving myself the gift of time. I’m going to go to my favorite kickboxing class followed by my favorite weight training class to celebrate 49 years as an asthmatic. I always workout extra hard on my birthday because I feel lucky to be able to do so.

Then I’m having lunch with a girlfriend to celebrate friendship. This would also count as celebrating the gift of laughter, because there will be plenty of that.

After that I’m going to work on my Quilt National submission to celebrate challenging myself and lifelong learning.

I’ll have a wonderful dinner with Bill and Sophie to celebrate how lucky I am to have a great family.

And then I’ll think about the next year. Any suggestions?

By Weeks | Posted in experiences, just a thought | Comments (5)

Versailles for fairies

August 24, 2010 – 10:29 pm

I blogged a few months ago about making fairy houses with our daughter Sophie from match boxes. Then a few weeks ago Sophie and I went into a garden center where they had put together fairy gardens. Fairy gardens! The fairy gardens on display were in low, wide containers and had little arbors, benches, plants and houses for fairies. The gardens included “fairy plants” which are small-leafed plants that work well with the small scale of the accessories they used. “Can we do this as a Mommy-Sophie project?” Sophie asked.

Ever since she turned nine this summer I’ve been aware that her childhood has reached the halfway point. In another nine years she’ll be out of the house and off to college. I’m trying to make a point of living in the moment so I really enjoy these next nine years – or until she becomes a teenager and doesn’t want anything to do with me – whichever comes first.

So we searched high and low for an appropriate container for our fairy garden. It needed to be wider than deep and have a diameter of at least 24” or so to create the landscape that Sophie had in mind. Remembering that we just took down a 60’ tree next to our house, need a new fence and have to have the house painted, I walked away from the beautiful, yet pricey, ceramic containers. We found an ugly plastic faux barrel that was the perfect size and we decided to spray paint it. “Silver!” Sophie said. “Fairies like sparkly things.” After we painted it, Bill looked at it, laughed and said, “So you decided to “pimp” the fairy garden?”  “It’s a girl thing,” I replied.

We drilled a hole in the bottom for drainage and filled it with potting soil. I let Sophie decide on the placement of the house and plants. We had some dark pink celosia around so she decided to use them for pink trees. I ask you: what fairy garden would be complete without pink trees? At Petco we found some chunky rocks because as odd as it seems, we don’t have rocks in our garden or neighborhood. Apparently our neighborhood was part of Lake Michigan millions of years ago so we have sandy soil and no rocks.

Anyway, I guess our trip to France earlier this summer made an impression on Sophie because she placed the Hens and Chicks in the center of the garden and said, “Ya know, like at Versailles.” I love it. Versailles for fairies. The house makes it. Its roof has a hinge so we can place a tea candle in it at night. We placed the fairy garden at the base of the stairs to our house and every visitor has commented on it. It makes me smile every time I pass it and remember to make the most of the next nine years.

By Weeks | Posted in experiences, family, general crafts, inspiration | Comments (7)

i’m here to testify

August 20, 2010 – 9:20 pm

I usually write about making things but today I’m writing about doing things.

Yesterday I testified in one of three public hearings around the US with a group of EPA officials who are considering reducing the amount of pollution that can be released into the air by power plants across the country. As a lifelong asthmatic, I wanted, just once, to tell them how bad air affects my life and my health. I brought all of the medications I take as well as the nebulizer I use for respiratory infections. I thought it would be a good visual and I think it was.

I was given five minutes to say what had been on my mind for as long as I can remember. It was a cathartic experience and one that I highly recommend. I prepared my statement the night before and practiced to make sure I was within the time limit. I kept it as brief as possible because I wanted them to get my message that their actions have a profound effect on my life and that I believe that clean air is a human right, pure and simple. My voice cracked with emotion more times than I wish but I was glad that I didn’t actually cry — although I was really close! I do a ton of public speaking but never about something that is so personal.

I have to say that I was prepared for bored bureaucrats who would be filling our their expense reports while I spoke but in fact, all but one maintained full eye contact with me for the entire time I spoke. You could have heard a pin drop in that room. The Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago has put my testimony on their website should you want to read what I said.

I’ve participated in hearings in my neighborhood and used to be on the Community Design Commission in my town, but it was really the first time I asked for something directly on a national level. It felt good to be participating in our democracy. I told my doctor what I had done and she said, “Thank you.”

Now if someone could get me five minutes with those knuckleheads in the tobacco industry, I’d be a happy woman.

By Weeks | Posted in design | Comments (3)

my two cents about WhipUp Mini Quilts

August 16, 2010 – 5:28 pm

Disclaimer: I used to contribute to whipup.net, which is the blog founded by Kathreen Ricketson, the author of this book. Kathreen asked me to write a blurb for the back of the book and I did because I liked the book. Her publisher sent me a copy but I’m reviewing it because I think it’s an interesting take on quilting and I think it raises a lot of issues worth discussing. Having said that, I don’t review books that I think steer you in the wrong direction as a quilter so rest assured that if I’m writing about it, it’s because I think it’s worth a look.

Many people have reviewed Mini Quilts and it had its own blog tour. I thought it would create a better dialog with you, fair reader, if I waited a bit so that those of you who may have had the chance to see the book yourself would be able to jump into the dialog about it.

First of all, I admit that I had binding envy as soon as I saw the book. We haven’t been able to convince our publisher to use Wiro binding on our books and I think that it makes for a very user-friendly craft book. The layout of the book is charming and very appropriate to the tone of this being about intimate little handmade quilts.

Kathreen writes with a refreshingly non-judgmental tone about the various techniques one uses in quiltmaking and I appreciate that she shares my view that one technique does not fit all projects or quilters. The book features quilts made by a variety of  people in different sizes with a variety of techniques.

Although some would want to make each quilt according to the instructions, my take is a bit different. This book reminds me of an indispensable technique I was taught in a drawing class. The teaching assistant suggested that before starting a large drawing that it was helpful to do a small thumbnail drawing about 2″ x 2″ in the upper right-hand page of the paper that was kind of a trial run of what you planned to include in the drawing. The thumbnail, he argued, would help you figure out proportions and what to edit out before you got to the big drawing. The thumbnail was a warm-up to the real drawing and it made starting a new drawing less intimidating.

Although I think that these charming little pieces stand on their own, they also provide, for the time-starved crafter, the opportunity to try a new technique before launching on a bigger piece. They also invite knitters and garment sewers to dip their toes into the quilting pool because the investment of time and fabric is minimal. You might choose to make a mini quilt inspired by someone else’s son’s drawing but you could also translate those same techniques to your child’s drawings.

Mostly I think that the quilts in this book provide inspiration and eye candy for quilters to design small, easily sewn compositions of their own. People without design backgrounds, who feel nervous designing something on their own, would probably be less intimidated looking at a few of these examples for ideas. These quilts also suggest that you could make small, sweet compositions as gifts, without dedicating a whole month to one project.

The only questions that I have about this book relate to the quilting of a few of the pieces. I’m really flexible about a lot of techniques but I get confused when I see a quilt that contains batting but not much quilting.

We use Quilter’s Dream batting, which tolerates the greatest distance between stitches of 8″. Most battings require that the distance between the stitching is only 2″ or so apart. If you decide not to heed the batting manufacturer’s recommendations for the distance between stitches, you might want to make a sample and wash it several times and handle it a lot before you make the real thing. Even if you don’t think you’ll ever wash it, things happen and you might want that option down the road. Quilting isn’t just a decorative element, it stabilizes the piece so the layers don’t pull apart over time or cause tearing in the quilt top.

Having said that I think that not every piece needs extremely dense quilting. It just needs enough to hold it together through washing and handling. I once spent an entire weekend repairing the numerous tears in a boy’s quilt made by someone who chose to tie a quilt at 6″ intervals. I’m sure that the maker had no idea how much this quilt would be handled and would have been horrified to see her work in shreds after a few years. I know most of these mini quilts are designed to be wall hangings, but I still think that you want your piece to be durable enough to withstand gentle handwashing and more if it’s going anywhere near a child.

Have you read this book? What do you think?

By Weeks | Posted in design, needlework, quilting, sewing | Comments (2)