12 x 12 at International Quilt Festival, Cincinnati

Yesterday, Gerrie Congdon asked me about what I thought of the 12 x 12 exhibition at the International Quilt Festival (IQF) Cincinnati.  I'm glad she did because in my nuttiness lately, I completely forgot about commenting on it!

As I reported in an earlier post, Del Thomas graciously sponsored the exhibition of the theme series and the color play series at IQF Houston, Cincinnati and Long Beach.  I was anxious to see them as I "cyber-know" several of the twelves, have been following them since they started putting up information on the web and I own "Twelve by Twelve" the book....  I have to admit, 288 quilts was A WHOLE LOT!  You could sit and look at them for a long time...Here's a taste of the show....I don't much like this part of the show ....it sort of got a little choppy, I suppose because there were so many quilts.  I am also not fond of the break int he hangings, but I suspect it was for emergency equipment or egress.

The lighting could have been a little better over in this corner, but they did have to work within the confines of the building, available space, electricity, etc.

I did like that the information on the quilts, with a photo of the quilt was right there in front of the quilts. In some of the other exhibitions, you had to struggle to find the right stand holding the information on the quilt in front of you.

I'm happy to report that it was very well received.  While I worked at the SAQA desk, which wasn't far from the 12 x 12 exhibition, a couple of people came over and asked if we had the book. We didn't, but I was able to point them in the right direction.  You can too!  Just go here for a full list of where you can obtain it, and I recommend that you do because they are so rich and I love the extended commentary and the lighting is a heck of a lot better in my home.... Of course, the color play series isn't included in the book as that series post dated the submissions for it.

It was wonderful, however to get a close up view and to be able to see all the stitches.

The exhibition of the 12s literally ran all along one wall from the back to the front of the show floor.  You can see the Artist Village which was nearer the front  with the 12s still running behind it.

Of all of the series....I'm afraid that Terry Grant's challenge of orange was my favorite. I am seduced by orange and I found this particular selection joyous.  How can you look at these quilts and not smile?

Top row, L-R: Hibiscus, Deborah Boschert; Endless Summer, Gerrie Congdon; Drought, Helen Conway; 2nd row: Central Park, Kirsten Duncan; Orange Lilies, Terry Grant; John Lennin's Glasses, Diane Perin Hock; row 3: Focus, Francoise Jamart; Enjoy the Delicious Twelve Brand, Kristen LaFlamme); Orange, Karen Rips; Row 4: Suits, Brenda Gael Smith; Bouquet by Terri Stegmiller; Short Summer by the Inch, Nikki Wheeler.  (sorry the bottom row is obstructed....

Liebster Awards

Circle of Ravens, wool felt, felted specialty yarns, machine quilted.  Lisa Quintana

Ok...so I'm a little behind the times.  The other day, Lisa Ellis nominated me for a Liebster award.  Ordinarily, I'd hop right in and post right away...OK, so I'm fooling myself....I usually give things like this a lot of thought....Not because I'm a procrastinator, and I know I am and I'm working on that, but that I don't really take things like this lightly.

So...if you don't want to read on and find out my thoughts about internet memes, here's the deal:

This award is given to bloggers that inspire you and have less than 200 followers.  I admit, I had to look up the ones I first thought of and see how many followers they had...a few, I was very surprised to see that they didn't have MORE followers.  I love the name as Liebster has the connotation of an object of love.   

Here are the particulars:

As part of the tradition it is passed along to 5 bloggers that have motivated and inspired.
To accept the award you must:
1. Link back to the person who gave it to you and thank them.
2. Post the award to your blog.
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers that you appreciate and value.
4. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know that they have been offered this award.

1.  Sherrie Spangler from Sherrie Loves Color  Sherrie is a quilter from Gig Harbor, WA and like me, she DOES love color.  She also loves nature and she posts interesting things and photographs from her poking around Puget Sound.  I'd love to go tidal pool wading with her because I love those kind of things too.  In addition, if you have never been to the Pacific Northwest, you get a pretty good feel for it from her blog.  I do know the PNW as I often go out there to visit my sister.  She and her guild also have made gajillions of quilts for cancer patients...and they are really cool ones, not the dogs that no one could figure out what to do with.

2.  Del Thomas at Del Quilts.  If you follow my blog, you'll know Del.  She sometimes comments, but earlier this year I wrote a blog post about her.  Del is a great photographer and art quilter, but best of all, she has a heart of gold and has done a tremendous amount to further art quilting.  She has a collection of art quilts and she highlights them on  her blog as well as with photographs and observations she makes...particularly with her canine friend, Corky the Poodle Prince who borrows Del every once in a while to take on adventures. I quite frankly couldn't believe that Del didn't have more than 200 followers.

3.  Elizabeth Barton at Art, Quilts and Cogitations thereon.  Elizabeth is one of the best writers about design, theory and art quilting in general.  She is concise, thoughtful, and you can tell she's brilliant.  I really love her art quilts... Like Del, I was dumbfounded when I realized that she hadn't hit the 200 mark for followers.

4.  Terry Jarrard-Diamond at Studio 24-7.  Terry is another person who tips in at 174, but I thought surely would have more followers.  Terry offers great examples in art quilting, both from her own hand as well as shows she has frequented and people she knows.  She is very giving with evaluations of materials and in gathering information and disseminating it.  Thanks to her, I encouraged a friend to buy a Kalorik Steam center, and now I own one too.  Lots of good information and just good reading. 

5.  Vivien Zepf is a great person with a wonderful eye and she combines those in to some pretty cool art quilts and photographs.  Because she serves as an editor for the Studio Art Quilt Associates Journal, and is a busy mother to three kids, sometimes she's a little sporadic in her posts, but her blog Seven Pines Designs is one I really enjoy.  Sometimes I giggle as it sometimes seems like we lead parallel lives. 

6.  And I give you a bonus as I couldn't leave him out.  Mark Nofsinger has a blog called Shady Character. I've "known" Mark a long time....He is one of my buddies from the Orchid Forum on garden web.  Mark is an avid gardener and foodie who lives in Wisconsin....Mark shares thoughts on growing things, birding, and great recipes.  In addition, he's either a landscape designer, or a landscape architect....I forget which!  

I took a while to do this as I actually went through my whole list of blogs that I follow..considering all of them.  In addition, I remember someone once saying to me "I don't do memes."  Ok...I admit it, I didn't know what a meme was...and I was afraid it was Me! Me!...But, being the inveterate researcher, I looked it up.  

The Liebster Award, and other blog awards, are great examples of meme (pronounced "meem" ).  A meme is (according to wiki-pedia)  "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."^[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.^[3]

I think that's a pretty cool idea...and I can't really find a problem with it.  In fact....I think it has great potential for a series of art quilts!

Hope you enjoy...I have to get back to putting my sewing room back to rights after emptying it and re-furbishing it from top to bottom....and it has to be done ASAP as dear daughter needs her room back this Friday.  YIKES!

Art Quilt Cards

 Last week, I was showered with cards as a week ago was my birthday, and of course Valentines Day worked its way in there as well.

You've seen Joan Sterr's lovely home-made fiber art cards before.  I haven't seen Joan in a while as she is playing the part of a snowbird....lucky duck.  She sent me this interesting thread stitched card.  She did it all freehand/free motion.

I especially like it because it reminds me of lady in an 18th century gown, with a stomacher (the yellow part) covering the lacings on her bodice....A throwback to my area of historical specialty, Colonial America.  You know....in some ways, the face sort of resembles Joan...This was her Valentines card to me.

 This fun little piece is simply a section of aboriginal print Joan embellished and quilted.  I love the color combos....

 Ruth Treon, one of the Batty Binder Art Quilters (Twisted Stitchers) made this little confetti style postcard.  She and I took Noriko Endo's class together at the International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati last year.  She wasn't happy with her piece, and has yet to finish it.  However, she did this little piece as a fun thing using Noriko's technique.  She said that this was more fun and I think you'll agree, it is pretty successful.

I have to admit, this is the orientation I like best...as if the leaves have fallen from the aspens and are now on the forest floor.

However, this is Ruth's intended orientation.  I think because the yellow is such a strong color that the balance is better with it on the bottom...If the forest floor were darker, then I think I'd put it her intended way.....

Either way, I really like it.

I am beginning to have quite a collection of fiber art post cards....no where near rivaling  Del Thomas' collection of 12" x 12" pieces...but who knows?

Del Thomas: The Art Quilter's Friend

I have wanted to put this post up for a while....but, life around here has been really nutty....something like this little quilted postcard, whose title is "Which Ball????"

Del Thomas made and donated this little piece to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative this last summer.  In response to her mother's battle with Alzheimer's, Ami Simms hosts a benefit auction of quilts the first 10 days of each month.  You can learn more about this here.

In late June, I happened to see this and decided that I would buy it for a variety of reasons:  Del uses mostly printed fabrics, and I have a fat quarter of the background fabric which is actually a line developed for Halloween...and I think it is yummy. I loved the movement and exuberance this little piece portrayed as well as the fact that I am often faced with the same problem...so many opportunities! Which ball should I chase?  I also thought that as I would be finishing my (what I then thought would be) last chemotherapy treatment I deserved a little gift to myself.  The fact that it benefited Alzheimer's, which claimed my grandfather's wonderful intellect and makes my mother afraid that she too will go down that path, made it special as well....but most special of all, Del Thomas made it.

Del is a remarkable woman and it comes through in all that she does.  Mind you, I've never met Del in person, but the wonders of the internet have blessed me with connecting us.  I have followed her blog, and she mine.  We have corresponded, and I am grateful for all that she has done for the art quilt (and quilt world in general).

Del has lived in California for slightly longer than I have been alive, and she's been quilting for over 60 years since she was very young....something we both have in common as I started quilting when I was 12. In addition, we share the specter of cancer as her husband battled cancer as I do. However, he  succumbed to the illness at about the same time I was initially diagnosed I think...almost 20 years ago.

Del, however, has done far more with her quilting than I ever hope to.  She has had her pieces appear in books, magazines, calendars, and many big shows.  She donates pieces like this postcard to a variety of fundraising events, including Virginia Spiegal's sales for fighting cancer., which bears witness to Del's generous spirit.

Her generosity doesn't stop there.  Del supports quilting by collecting art quilts.  The Thomas Collection of Contemporary Quilts supports art quilters through her purchase of works as well as the fact that she generously shares them in shows and on her blog, and through taking them around and lecturing about them.

Del's eye is discerning and her collection fabulous.  As an example, just take a look at this piece.  Her collection includes pieces from many of my favorite quilters.

I have been following the work of a group of twelve quilt artists "The Twelve".  I loved their book, "Twelve by Twelve" and I admit, I am a little jealous at the connections and mutual inspiration and "pushes" that the artists had.  I looked at the pieces in the book and though, "OH, How I'd love to see these pieces in person."  Then, I had great news.  Del Thomas has underwritten the cost of the exhibition of works by the "Twelves" at Houston, and they will also be coming to Cincinnati at the International Quilt Festival there in April (which I plan on attending) .  I gasped as I knew how much this would cost....sponsorships of exhibitions at I.Q.F. do not come cheaply.  I had contacted them about the possibility of the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network showing our Dayton Landmark quilts there and was stunned....

So, Del, thanks so much.  I am grateful for so many things you do and who you are.  I will cherish my little postcard, and although the dog is red, and not white, I'll think of Corky every time I look at it.

Please join me in giving Del the kudos she so richly deserves.