Fiberart For a Cause

If you have some extra cash you'd like to give to the American Cancer Society, please purchase a fiber-art collage--ready for framing--now through 5 p.m. CDT Thursday, May 7. All collages are a minimum $80 donation (they will take more!) until 10 a.m. tomorrow (May 6), when the minimum donation becomes $40 each, and will be shipped to you from the artist.

I didn't make anything this year--fear of rejection, the exemplars shown with the call for entries were intimidatingly awesome--so don't look for my name. But go take a look anyway...Mother's Day is Sunday...

Enough with the Obama Quilts already.

You know, in 8 years, I didn't see a single George Bush quilt that didn't reference him as a genocidal monster or a bumbling simian.

Interviews with "Obama Quilters", for posterity.

...quite a few Shepard Fairey ripoffs, too. *cough*

Silver lining to not having the money to attend the international show in Chicago this year: I won't have to see any of this garbage and my head won't explode.

Ooooh.

I trust you've all pre-ordered your Obama fleece panel to make cuddly no-sew throws.

I understand documenting the election/coronation with a commemorative quilt, but wrapping up your loved ones in The One is pathology.

God love ya, Chuck!

Quilt historian Barbara Brackman has "designed" two Obama fabrics (quotes because she just copied 19th century designs and pasted his face with Photoshop) you can print off at home onto your own fabric. The first is a repeat featuring The One and some unimportant blurry dead white slave-owning oppressor bastard (PDF).

The second is a medallion featuring The One and Joe Biden (also PDF).

Joe Freaking Biden!

There's about 18 other things in my quilt queue, but I *will* make a Joe Freaking Biden piece before this is all over. And NOT with the reverence intended.

Can't get enough Obama quilts 2

I hadn't realized the exhibit at the The Historical Society of Washington, D.C was only open to "Quilters of Color." I'm not really surprised, since so much "contemporary art" is deemed worthy by the skin/genitals/biography of the artist and not the actual work.

It'll be interesting to revisit these quilts in a couple of years and see if they hold up.

Meanwhile, for your viewing pleasure, quilted portraits of K'Ehleyr, er, Mrs. O*.

(How does K'Ehleyr not merit her own Wikipedia page?)

* OK, I feel bad about the cheap shot. K'Ehleyr didn't deserve that.

The radiant visage of The One

Shepard Fairey's unoriginal banal "radical chic" artwork is being acquired by the National Portrait Gallery*.

The collage, unlike the smoothed-out version millions of Obamabots have themselves plagiarized, contains--quite noticeably--Fairey's Soviet-styled "Obey" logo (upper right-hand corner, also below his right ear).

Nice.

O's face will also stare at you from your Metro fare card, if you're unfortunate enough to be in the DC area this month. At least that's not part of the trend of emblazoning Dear Leader's visage on any available surface--they printed cards with Bill Clinton in 1993 (but not George Bush in 2001).

If I suddenly come into great wealth, I'm going back to school to study art history and abnormal psychiatry--maybe I could make sense of this stuff, or at least write about it effectively.

UPDATE: Refreshingly faceless Obama quilt from Milwaukee artist Sonji Hunt. I'll be seeing some of her other work, which I like a lot, in person later this month at the Anderson Art Center in Kenosha. I'll be really happy when this cult stuff blows over and I can read quilt blogs again.

* Plagiarism is a path to success--just ask Joe Biden!

Can't get enough Obama quilts

The 60s called, they want Andy Warhol back.

I made an interesting noise when I got to "Red and blue to remind us that his election crossed party lines." My ass.

This blog powered by recycled sanctimony

Handmade gifts for people who want to Save Teh Planet!!1!, but don't care about it enough to stop drinking beverages made from beans transported thousands of miles (ZOMG, the CARBON!) and served in disposable paper cups. Sometimes it's fun to be an enabler.



"Reclaimed cotton fabric and batting" (read: tiny bits normal people would throw away) coffee cuffs. Notice how, unlike the "green" crafter linked, I did not buy brand new petroleum-based synthetic fabric for my planet-saving endeavor.

Look, a reusable sleeve! I CARE!!

Another O quilt

At $230, it's a bargain (cheapskates!).

Nightmares not included.

Obama Quilt

Needs arugula. They did a nice job combining the disparate styles, but the block in the lower left corner with the Maoist three-quarters profile imposed on the American flag creeps me out.

My attempts at political quilting have been thwarted by my inability to draw a barracuda. But somewhere in my back room there is fabric printed with mooses that I bought in Alaska three years ago.

Quilting in the "recession"

(Quotes, as we haven't had one quarter of negative growth lately, much less the two consecutive quarters necessary to be in a recession, although God only knows what will happen after January 20...).

The most interesting part of this article on quilter spending in a shaky economy is the admission from a former business writer that journalists crave disaster.

I've noticed some interesting trends among the "dedicated quilters" on a list a read. First, they worried about the price of everything, including all the sacrifices they were making to continue to buy quilting supplies and classes (but not the price of gas, because oil is bad for Mother Gaia), which seems consistent with the article. Then the same people had a thread on why they make art for little to no money instead of working for wages (women who work for wages are chasing false idols of consumerism--that was news to me). Then I look at their blogs and they're all supporting Obama because they want "free" health care and think working people have too much money. With no sense of realization that their lifestyles are possible because their husbands are/were working for wages so their wives could afford all those week-long classes...

(I almost unsubscribed after a thread bitching about the TSA searching their sewing bags that didn't place a shred of blame on people who hijack airplanes. There's morons and power-drunk assholes at every TSA checkpoint, but I can't forget why they got that power in the first place.)

Anyway, I don't see contemporary young women taking to stitching together scraps in the evenings for cheap entertainment like they did in the 1930s; there are too many electronic entertainments available (not to mention the sexual revolution provided new acceptable ways for young women to while away an evening for no cash down). The AARP crowd, possibly. Hard to say. There was a resurgence of "traditional crafts" in the 1970s, but I think it was spurred by the bicenntenial more than Carter's economy...

Bah!

The Brewers have finally passed whatever threshhold was necessary for someone to pay the licensing fee to MLB to print Brewers fabric for the "home sewer." But only the ag-history-referencing, completely unintuitive wheat logo. Cubs fans have three different styles of polyester fleece to choose from.

And MLB still won't license cotton fabric.

Conservative/McCain quilts?

This was on a quilt list today.

You guys have been a great help sending images and information about your quilts and others for this political (Get Out and Vote) exhibit for Houston this fall I want to send a great big Thank You!

We seem to have a lot of quilts being made in support of democratic candidates, at least those are the quilts being sent for consideration in response to our request. We really need to be fair, so I'm asking if anyone has a McCain quilt or a republican quilt they would like to share? Please contact me directly at spexhibits@quilts.com and not through the list. Send a photo, size, and brief statement/explanation regarding the quilt prior to the August 15, 2008 deadline.

I think it's going to be a really unbalanced exhibit, since there's about three U.S. quilters who aren't self-styled "progressives", and they don't do political work.

But if any of you know anyone who loves McCain or the GOP enough to make a quilt, please tell them of this opportunity to display it.

(It'll be interesting to see this exhibit when it comes to Chicago 3 months after the inauguration...)

MLB is trying to kill AND pander to me.

May 9-12 is $1 hot dogs. And I can get a free cheap seat on the 12th with a coupon Pizza Hut gave to one of my cow-orkers who doesn't like sports.

And then, there's THIS:

Come out to Stitch N' Pitch Night at Miller Park as your Milwaukee Brewers take on the Colorado Rockies at 7:05 p.m. [July 9]

The first 1,000 needle artists to purchase tickets will receive a voucher for a special Brewers/Stitch N' Pitch cap which you will redeem at the game that night.

It takes so little to make me happy.

Interesting.

John McCain visited Gee's Bend, Alabama, and bought some quilts made by the ladies there.

At least one of the quilters, Mary Lee Bendolph, said she was learning toward supporting Mr. Obama, but she praised Mr. McCain for turning up in Wilcox County, which locals say has never before been visited by a presidential candidate.

“He came here and he did something, and you know what, nobody else did,” Mrs. Bendolph said.

And he bought quilts. Maybe he likes their style, maybe he thinks they're crap, but either way, he participated in helping them earn an honest living.

I've got mixed feelings about the Gee's Bend quilts as art, but the women were living in serious poverty--"dirt floor" poor, not "couldn't afford health insurance for the kids but have cable and a flat screen and a manicure" poor--for decades, supporting themselves somewhat with sewing, before a private citizen took notice; now their quilts sell for thousands of dollars (there's a controversy raging because that citizen made money marketing Gee's Bend quilters; does anyone complain that Drew Rosenhaus or Sotheby's make money when they present goods and services to buyers?).

I expect HRC and BHO to pop down there shortly to explain additional government programs they want to start to "help" women like the quilters (who would have been eligible for any number of existing federal programs between 1964 and when they started making money...). And they're not going to give a dime out of their own pockets to purchase anything these women are selling to support themselves and their families. They don't care; they just can't let the rich white man be seen talking to poor black women they've overlooked.

Still don't like McCain's agenda, but he's a decent human being. Can't say that about either of the other two candidates.

This does not surprise me.

There is a book/CD with patterns for redwork portraits of the U.S. Presidents. Redwork is an embroidered outline of a picture, sewn (worked) in red thread; it was popular in the 1930s and 1950s and popular again among those who like to make reproduction period quilts. Quilts are usually themed--baby animals, state flowers or birds, scenes from colonial life, etc--and usually consist of embroidered blocks with strips of plain fabric between them.

You can get a head start on the 2008 election by making a Hillary or Barack redwork block with a free pattern.

Apparently no one has considered the possibility that McCain might win in November. That's the part that doesn't surprise me.

And no, I'll not be making a McCain quilt.

I did buy a used copy of the book at Amazon; the Reagan portrait could be a good starting place for something eventually.

Quilt tourism

In the Wall Street Journal.

Paducah has become one of the prime destinations for quilt tourism, 21st-century style.

Maybe I'll check it out sometime, albeit not during AQS show weekend. I'd like a class with Caryl Bryer Fallert.

Adventures in FIBland.

When I moved to Milwaukee, I thought I'd be spending a lot of weekends visiting Chicago. Häh! Today was the first time I've been there since last year's
International Quilt Festival, and frankly, I could have done without this trip. Solid construction as soon as you hit the Tollway. In the rain. With potholes. At one point, I was going 15 mph over the speed limit, being passed like I'm standing still (people behind me who couldn't get around were gesturing), and trying to figure out if it's better to hit the concrete barrier on the left or the concrete barrier on the right if my tire blows out.

THEN the sign said "Stephens Convention Center, second exit" and the second exit took me straight to the terminal at O'Hare. I think they just wanted an extra 80 cents.

I'd really rather not join a guild, but if that's what it takes to get on a bus next year...

Then there was a brief period of panic when I was surrounded by perfectly coiffed women wearing high heels and makeup, about thirty years younger and 125 pounds lighter than the average quilter. Turns out there was a "jewelry and fashion" wholesale show this weekend as well. I'm over the average quilter weight, but I'm about 6" over the average quilter height, so I hope it evens out. (I'm more than a year closer to the average age; there were a lot of mother-daughter and grandmother-granddaughter pairs bringing down the mean.)

I did not make a beeline for my quilt; I made a beeline for the bathroom before the line wrapped around the building, something I learned last year.

Overall, it was a pretty good show. The main show theme was the same as last year--Celebrate Spring--so the main body of quilts was much the same as last year. Apparently quilters grow up wanting to be Georgia O'Keeffe, there was three-foot flower after three-foot flower. The winner was the same man who won last year with a quilt of a songbird; this year he made a quilt with a rooster. At least it wasn't a three-foot flower.

I looked at all the Journal Quilts (mostly to compare myself to everyone else, a bad habit I can't shake) and read the artists' statements. Most people gave everything about a 30-second glance and didn't read past the artist's name and location. Much less leftist than last year's JQ exhibit--only four "the U.S. is a mean and evil and imperialist baby killer!" pieces and a couple of "ZOMG! Teh Gorbal warmening!" vs two tributes to family members who served in the forces and a very pleasant piece about the improved conditions for women after the Taliban were removed from power in Afghanistan. The quilter spent part of 2007 actually in Afghanistan teaching midwifery skills to women from villages; the death rate in childbirth is coming down in cities now that women are allowed to leave their homes and receive medical care, but the rural areas are still catching up. Altogether the political pieces were only about 5% of the exhibit; the rest were the usual mix of ancestors, death, cancer, trees, flowers, beaches, animals, babies, weddings, and abstractions.

And some nutburger made a Colts quilt.

I'm either more talented than I think I am, or not as good as I think I am, or both.

The really strange part is I came home with most of the money I left the house with. Three of the four vendors I wanted to visit weren't there; I don't have the money or space for a longarm quilting machine or fancy cabinets; if I just want fabric I know the location of every quilt shop between here and Des Moines. All I bought was a 2" ceramic black cat button handmade by artists from Colorado (I have a sudden urge to make sock monsters) who also have black cats, and a T-shirt from a woman from Iowa (her brother was one of the victims of the Omaha mall shooting last December, which I didn't know until I got home and started poking around the website...).

Then on the way home, the sign said "To 294 North" and either they lied, or they forgot to put up a sign for a second turn, because I ended up on U.S. 45 North, driving through beautiful (no, not really) downtown Des Plaines. And of course I didn't have a map, because I was going to a convention center off a freeway, so there would be signs, right? I figured there would be a road I recognized before I got to Fond du Lac, and it was only about ten miles before a sign that said "To 294 North" actually got me to the tollbooth and the concrete barriers, although not without running me along a section of road flooded out by the Des Plaines River.

I'm just grateful I didn't see snow until I hit Milwaukee County, where everything makes sense I know what to expect.

Next stop: beer.

Hope! Change! Arugula!

Would be a great name for a quilt.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what it would look like. And I hate arugula.

(I got the phrase here)

People can stop pointing this out to me...

Soldier's Iraq Rape and Murder Trial Delayed to Accommodate Quilt Show

U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell ordered former Pvt. Steven D. Green's trial delayed from April 13, 2009 to April 27 because the National American Quilt show is in Paducah during the original trial date.

I don't know where the MSM is getting their information, but there is no "National American Quilt Show" anywhere in the U.S. I googled and got a bunch of outlets that carry the AP wire story, but no quilt shows.

OTOH, the American Quilter's Society has held a "Show and Contest" in Paducah every year since 1991. The year-round population of Paducah is 25k and the show's annual attendance is 35-40k; hotels are booked for a two-hour radius (I've never been to this show).

I'm not sure why nobody thought about this before the original court date was set--the only analogy I can think of is scheduling the Dahmer trial in Green Bay on the Monday the Vikings come in to kick off the season. You'd have to be living in a cave to not to realize you're not the only media event in town.

But I'm not sure why this is news, other than it gives hipsters a chance to make fun of old ladies and NY Times and various anti-military orgs a chance to smear other, unaffiliated soldiers. The incident took place in 2006, the trial wasn't scheduled until 2009--a two-week delay doesn't seem very significant.

(And if he's guilty, fry him. I feel that way about all violent rapists, don't try to argue me out of it.)