A NEW TWIST TO AN OLD QUESTION

We've all heard the Art vs Quilt question. There are different categories in the shows for 'Art' quilts, and the rest are various 'normal' quilts.. I have a new question concerning miniature quilts. We know that if there is a category for these quilts, it is separate from 'normal' quilts and 'art' quilts.
How do you view miniature quilts? Some of them can be astounding like Diane Gaudynski's wholecloth "A Visit to Provence". I think I would consider many of them 'art' quilts, because their purpose is only for viewing pleasure. In a pinch many of the quilts in the other 'normal quilt' categories, can be used as originally intended.. you can roll up in them to keep warm.. I know that many cringe when we think of many of these ever touching a couch.. I know I am cringing now as I think of my favorite quilt of all time "Magnum Opus: The Book of Kells". 'Art' Quilts might have all kinds of weird things on them that would make it impossible to wrap up in them. Unless you don't worry about putting your eye out with your quilt.
What about miniatures? They aren't good for anything except looking at. Potholders.. coasters.... okay.. I'm kidding.
I have no clue why I am asking this.. I have been thinking a lot about it lately. I have developed a love of making small quilts. When I see a large quilt, I wonder if I could reproduce it in miniature. I'm wondering if I should 'specialize' in miniatures? I know that the prize money isn't as good for miniatures as it is for other categories, which leads me to think they aren't respected in the quilting world. But on the other hand, the categories usually don't have as much competition either. And the quilts in them are either really good, or not.
The AQS has made the step of increasing the prize money, and having a "Best Miniature" purchase prize in this category like they do in the other categories. I'm sure that will lend a greater air of respectability, at least in the AQS show. The museum is going to have a miniature quilt section or something.. at least I know they are going to display them. Maybe the purchase prize this year will be the first of a nice collection for the museum.

I don't think I would be wasting my time making miniatures, any more than I wasted my time making the "Skeletons". I could do traditional designs, but making them small would make them more unique, so I wouldn't be like everyone else. I don't like being like everyone else.. in case you haven't noticed.
Then I can focus my intense desire for detail in a smaller area. It may take a long time to attend to the details in a small quilt.. but believe me, it takes longer to worry about it in a big quilt.. And look at it this way, no more wrestling to baste a big quilt.. one of my less favorite things to do.. and I can buy the best fabric, and not have to use as much... Postage to ship the quilt costs less... As you can see, it isn't going to take much to convince me..

LET CHERRYWOOD DO THE DYEING

I used a couple of bundles of 8 step gradations from Cherrywood to make 'There and Back Again". Maybe for a mini applique, I will use :
This is a new pallette that they use called "Potter's Wheel". Now, I know, I am not usually attracted to pastels... but how about this as an accent?:
This palette is called "Alaskan Sunset. I think using at least 2 of the colors of the 'Potters wheel' palette for the back ground, and the colors of 'Alaskan Sunset' as the accent and details... might be just perfect.. and that way. I won't have to worry about the colors coming out wrong when I do them. I do bright colors well as you can see.. it is subtle that I have a problem with..

IT'S STARTING TO GROW ON ME

Last night, my only thought was to overdye both fabrics.. I can't use them for what I wanted.. but, maybe they would make an interesting mini log cabin... hmmmm...

MY WORST DYE JOB EVER

Following my theory of more is better.. I wanted to make a miniature applique quilt out of Silk Charmuese. I wanted peach and ecru. I set out to dye.. I guess I used too much dye.. this is what I got .

This picture doesn't even begin to show the intensity of the orange... and ECRU? I'll overlook that the light color dye turned almost black green when it hit the water... I thought.. okay.. silk doesn't dye as dark as cotton...

Maybe I used too much dye... Gee.. do ya think?

Finally Friday

Zelda is visiting Gail in Illinois. She is going to the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show next week. My mini Pineapple "There and Back Again" is making it's show debut in this show. I hope that it does well.. I slaved over that quilt for a long time. The only thing about it that I would do different is I would have put continuous piping around the center section. I split it into 4 sections.. oh well, live and learn. Zelda had her pic taken by the thimbles.. she knows how much I love them. I collect thimbles. Never could stand to use them until I got my Roxane. Those will probably be in someone elses collection someday. Zelda is wearing her sweater because it was cold when she left.. she wore the feathered collar because she needed to snaz up her outfit.

I have a few obligations that I need to work on this weekend.. then I can start my new project. I'm glad it's Friday, I have the next 3 days off of work. I'll check back this weekend if anything interesting is going on.

QUILTING COMPETITIONS

In the last couple of days, I have been thinking about why I started and continue entering competitions. Yesterday, while sewing with my group of friends, we got onto the subject. My friend Kathleen recently had a piece accepted into Focus Fiber. I am really proud of her. I would consider her more of a fiber artist than I am.. I am a quiltmaker. What she makes for competition I would loosely consider quilts. They are artistic, sometimes "quilted" with nuts and bolts. Her accepted piece is one of a series based on women she has known. This is a reclaimed cathedral window quilt, that has been put in between two pieces of screening, and the screening has had pieces cut away in many places in specific designs. I can't remember how she put the layers together.

Anyway, we got onto the subject of entering competitions. Kathleens thoughts are that you can make art just to please yourself and not ever put it in a competition. Others of my friends agreed that they were happy with their friends getting pleasure from seeing one of their quilts, and they didn't need to put them into a competion.

Today, another friend, asked why I would enter a quilt in the Vermont Quilt Festival. I don't even think there are monetary awards. Last year, I got a ribbon for a Baltimore Album, and that's how I found out how they judged. They judge according to points, and quilts are not judged against each other, but each quilt is judged on it's own merit. I plan to enter my skeletons, and my mini pineapple this year. So when my friend asked me this, I started thinking about it. Why do I do any of this?

First, I'll talk about Vermont Quilt Festival. In addition to the NQA show, I have got the best critique on my quilt from Vermont. That is what I am interested in. What judges who are trained, and experienced think about my workmanship. It is important to me because I enter not to beat another quilter, but in a sense to beat my best. Just like some Olympic athletes, they go to the Olympics knowing that they don't have a chance to medal (Like the 50 year old woman from Bermuda (?) in I think the Luge competition. They must be so excited to say they were in the Olympics. Many of them have said they are trying to beat their personal best. I am not really interested in entering to win money.. although I don't mind if I do win some. Good thing.. I don't think VQF has monetary prizes unless you are a top winner. Vermont is an historic old show, and I think it is also fun to enter because of that.

Don't get me wrong, although I am ecstatic if I am juried into a show... I was even more excited when I won first place at Road to California. Quilters with more show experience probably don't think a win here is a big deal. But it was for me. I have heard some top quilters proclaim that they expect to win and if they don't they are upset. I read about a quilter who won a lesser prize at a big show.. but not Best in Show.. which is what she thought she deserved. After causing a stink, she never entered again. I guess that she was a wonderful quilter, and could have contributed a lot to the quilting world. God help me if I EVER act like either of those women. I think that the biggest reason that these ladies are like this, is that they have taken their art, and made it a way to make a living. I don't have any need to do that. I made a business out of my painting maybe about 10 or so years ago. It took all of the joy out of it for me. I felt pressured into coming up with new things, and pressured to produce. I'm sure quilters who do this for a living have the same kind of pressures. They have to continually make new art, and designs, I would think that they HAVE to win at the larger shows, because it's good for their business.

That being said, why do I enter? If I ever get good enough to win top prizes.. would I be taking the food out of someone's mouth that needs the win ? I know, that's assuming a lot... Like.. TERI... AS IF!!! I don't have any aspirations to pattern making... none for teaching...the thought of traveling all of the time would be awful for me. Let's see.. the first thought I ever had of entering was when I made the skeletons for fun, and then didn't know what to do with them. It was actually my friend Kathleen that gave me the idea.. She said she knew of places that I should try to enter. Entering that quilt has given me so much inspiration. I am tackling difficult projects (no, I'm not a fast and easy kind of quiltmaker) that I might not have ever bothered to try.
Truthfully, if I hadn't planned on entering my pineapple from the get go.. I would never have tackled an excruciatingly intricate project like that. Now, it is one of my favorite pieces, and I learned a lot making it. The quilt means too much to me though, because I backslid into hoping too much that I would get it into the AQS show.. I go there every year, and I love the show and the town, it would mean something personal to me to have a quilt in that show. Yesterday, when I read the AQS newsletter, it pretty much snapped me back to reality when I realized that since they have raised the prize money for the miniatures, that every excellent miniature quiltmaker is going to enter the show. I will have a hard time with the disappointment when they don't accept it. So, I can't keep dreaming about it and be devastated...I am just going to let it go.. and what will be will be.. I can try again next year.

I am glad that my friends made me think about why I enter.. It's fun, it's personally rewarding, It brings quiltmaking off of the porch, and out in the big world for everyone to see. Although, you will be proud of me that I don't comment when someone tells me, when they see my Skeleton piece.. "I like your blanket".. Okay...... I am just happy that it touched them enough to comment... ;)

BIRTHDAY QUILTS

Yay!! I finally finished the last of our birthday quilts. My miniature quilt group Twisted Stitchers" decided we would make miniature quilts for each other this year. These three finish up the end of last years birthdays. We fell a little behind. I designed these and did the applique and the quilting. But our group, Lindy, Kaye, Karin, Bobbie, Kathleen, Nancy, and I pieced the blocks, and put the tops together. I think they turned out pretty well. I probably should have planned the quilting a little better. I forget how it is almost impossible for me to free motion something with so many seams packed into a small area. I started with the storm at sea and I tried quilting circles to pick up the motion in the quilt, but I would veer off course because of the seams. I ended up picking out all of the quilting and just doing stitch in the ditch in the pieced area. I think that everyone will be almost as happy to get them as I am to finish them!!!

BOBBIE'S QUILT 17 X 18

LINDY'S QUILT 16 X 16"

KATHLEENS QUILT 12X14"

IT'S FINALLY FRIDAY

My favorite day of the week. I am off work, and everyone else is working and I generally have the house to myself. Not a lot going on. I finally got around to borders and basting of these mini birthday quilts. Now the hare part, figuring out appropriate quilting for each. I have been fighting off bronchitis. I felt bad yesterday and did my annual one day call off. Actually it is the first time in over a year that I have missed work. I just hate to slack off of my responsibility, but I couldn't face getting up at 5am on a snowy morning after coughing up a lung all evening. So I spent the day working on quilts. I get side tracked easily so it's a challenge sometimes.
This is Zelda. She is a little zebra that I picked up on a grocery shopping trip. I bought her because I thought she was so cute, and had a "personality". I made a quilted vest for her and decided that I would take her with me to quilt shows and ask famous quilters to take pictures with her. Her first show was Paducah in 2002. Ricky Timms is the first to have his pic taken with Zelda, many have followed. Sue Nicols and Pat Holly, Caryl Bryer Fallert, Nancy Smith, Alex Anderson, Kaye Wood, and so many others, I can't think of them all. She has missed a few because I forgot her. She has travelled to many shows that I couldn't go to. If my quilt is hanging, she had her picture taken in front of it. She has been to Japan, and shows in Germany and France, she will go to Australia next year. She has been in Guam, and to a retreat in Arizona. She went on a cruise with Mary Stori, and has been to many different states. If you go to my webshots albums, you can see pictures of where she has been. There are many humerous pictures. Next month she will go to Texas with my friend Nancy. She will be attending a workshow with Karen Stone. Then she will be going to Florida with Nancy to visit grandchildren (Nancy's) Hey, even Zelda needs a little down time. She has a new vest of flying geese to replace the quilted string pieced vest that she has been traveling with. Maybe whe will go to Paducah this year. She has taken the last couple of years off. Well, blogger is acting weird again. I am goint to get off of the computer and do something constructive.

LILY FREE FRIDAY

This is Lily D. Monster. She is an 8 month old Tibetan Spaniel that was given to my 80 year old Aunt who decided that she was just too hard to handle. I have had her since she was about 9 weeks old. Man-o-Man, what a handful. I'm glad she only weighs about 10 pounds. I said I would take her because I felt Sam needed a companion because Claire, our Golden Retriever, is getting to old to romp the way Sam does. Now the tables are turned, and Lily torments Sam. One night, Sam was trying to jump up on the couch to lay between Bill and me. He'd jump, and fall back, Jump and fall back.. with this funny look on his face. I looked over the edge of the couch to see Lily yanking his tail at his every attempt to jump up.
Yesterday, I took Lily to the vet to be spayed. It has been marked on the calendar for 2 weeks as Lily Free Friday. It was a peaceful day.. I am biding my time now blogging, because I know that I will have to go pick her up at the vet at some point this morning.

I thought that along with the nice picture.. I would show the slightly crazy picture. Kinda looks like Egore.. yesh master... Do you think that they will keep her sedated until Monday when I go back to work? On another note.. I got the bright Idea to go through all of the magazines that I have been hoarding through the years and take out what I can use, and pitch the rest. All I can say, is I'm glad I let all of my subscriptions but a couple lapse. I almost have a file drawer empty, and I just thought of a bunch that I put in a box for sorting. I should just pitch them all.. I probably never would know what I had. But I have found a few interesting things. Applique placement diagrams that are small enough to be used on some future miniature quilt. They are traditional patterns, so there should not be a problem there. I found patterns for traditional spikey sashing, so I don't have to draft it myself.. I really do have to attempt to get something accomplished this weekend. Bill is off doing accounting work.. it IS tax season. I think he would rather take up woodworking as a sideline business. He's really good at it. I have told him that I think quilter's would buy spool chests if he made them to sell. I know that I love mine. I am going to figure out the size of a 2 drawer chest that is about half of the size of my 3 drawer. And he is going to make some of those. They would be nice to keep on the table by a couch to put hand-sewing supplies in. Well, it's getting late. It is time to get Lily. Oh.. another Lily story. Remember the Back to the Future movie? The mom had a bother that was in jail. She made a cake for him because he was finially getting out. They called him Uncle 'jailbird Joey". Then when they were in the past, and Marty ended up staying with his mother's family.. Joey was a baby and was in his playpen(wooden with bars).... "He loves being in there, so we just leave him in it". That's Lily in her crate. She gets into so much trouble, that she spends a lot of time in her crate. We call her "Lockup Lily". She's getting better the older she gets.. maybe when she is 12 she will be perfect...