One of the quilts in the Gee's Bend exhibition. There was no plaque to tell me who made this beauty.
It's been two weeks since I returned home from QuiltCon. I'm still fueled by the energy, ideas and wisdom I experienced in one February weekend. And I imagine I'll hold the energy for a while. When something has moments that are transcendent, you don't let go of those moments easily.
This year was different for me than QuiltCon 2013. At that time I wasn't a quilter. I had been visiting quilt shows for years as an admirer of the craft, design and history that quilting encapsulates. As a painter and collage artist, I would admire how the parts were put together to make a whole. How those parts become a object that comforts us and lives with us. Sometimes the quilts I saw returned back into my 2D paper and canvas based work. But it was a few months after the first QuiltCon, hosted by the Modern Quilt Guild, that I stepped into the realm of the quilt world, and began contributing to the movement and history. Of course I'll never look back!
This year was different for me than QuiltCon 2013. At that time I wasn't a quilter. I had been visiting quilt shows for years as an admirer of the craft, design and history that quilting encapsulates. As a painter and collage artist, I would admire how the parts were put together to make a whole. How those parts become a object that comforts us and lives with us. Sometimes the quilts I saw returned back into my 2D paper and canvas based work. But it was a few months after the first QuiltCon, hosted by the Modern Quilt Guild, that I stepped into the realm of the quilt world, and began contributing to the movement and history. Of course I'll never look back!
Me with my quilt selected for the 2015 QuiltCon, "Ms. O.D's Flying Quilt"
At the urgency of my dear quilter friend Jeanne, who has been by my side on this path to becoming a quilter (she is so knowledgeable about quilt making, quilt preservation, and Texas History, I could listen to her talk all day) I entered. "You gotta do it!" she said. "I'll have better ones next time," I told her. "Ms. OD's Flying Quilt" was accepted, and my journey to QuiltCon this time would include seeing my work on show for the first time, at a large scale quilt exhibition. Other quilters ("my people") would see my work. This was exciting.
Denim and corduroy block quilt by Fiona Moore, Gee's Bend, AL
But what was most exciting from the first announcement of QuiltCon 2015 was that the Gee's Bend Quilters of Alabama were the headlining artists. I had my ticket for QuiltCon before I even knew my work was accepted. I have adored their work from the moment I laid eyes on their spirited, improvised, musical quilts. I own their books, I've watched their videos, I've seen their quilts in major exhibitions at art museums. But I've never heard them speak about their craft, their life, their song. To hear an artist speak about their work, an artist who you truly admire, brings you to the reminder of their humanity, and how we are all in this together. How we work along similar parallel lines in the way we build our work. How beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That the way we create is as unique to each of us, as each person's story is as unique from one story to the next.
Hundreds of people packed the auditorium on Saturday night to listen to the 4 women from Gee's Bend tell stories about hardship, life in rural Alabama, why they began quilting, what drives them, how thankful they are to God. They opened their talk with the Gospel song "Don't Bring Me Flowers When I'm Dead." When the singing began, these four voices filled the room with authenticity, and I couldn't hold back the tears. There was something so powerful in those strong voices that hit the center of my heart. I was witnessing a moment in time that each person in that audience will hold in their hearts forever. I was being sung to by my heroines. They, inspire me.
Hundreds of people packed the auditorium on Saturday night to listen to the 4 women from Gee's Bend tell stories about hardship, life in rural Alabama, why they began quilting, what drives them, how thankful they are to God. They opened their talk with the Gospel song "Don't Bring Me Flowers When I'm Dead." When the singing began, these four voices filled the room with authenticity, and I couldn't hold back the tears. There was something so powerful in those strong voices that hit the center of my heart. I was witnessing a moment in time that each person in that audience will hold in their hearts forever. I was being sung to by my heroines. They, inspire me.
Lotta Jansdotter and Maura Ambrose of Folk Fibers
Sunday morning was Maura Ambrose of Folk Fibers' talk on Natural Dyeing for Quilters. I fell in love with Maura's work the moment I laid eyes on it. To me, her work is authentic, and reaches back in time to make something current and timeless. I find most of my inspiration from the past as a lover of art and textile history. Naturally Maura's work speaks to me.
I love the labor she invests in her work, from dyeing her fabric naturally, to hand quilting her quilts. The process alone is admirable. She credits the past and is generous in sharing her knowledge about the alchemy natural dyeing requires. I thank you for that Maura!
Her talk was lovely and accessible and left me filled with electricity for what spring has to offer. More in the indigo dyeing department. I loved the process when I tried it in 2014 and love the results. I loved chatting with her about motherhood and what it means to be a hand quilter. I look forward to future workshops and learning more from her. And I can't wait for her Guide Books!
At the end of her talk was a lady waiting to say hello. It was Lotta Jansdotter. Did I witness the meeting of two brilliant textile artists with ideas for future collaborations? Oh we hope so.
I love the labor she invests in her work, from dyeing her fabric naturally, to hand quilting her quilts. The process alone is admirable. She credits the past and is generous in sharing her knowledge about the alchemy natural dyeing requires. I thank you for that Maura!
Her talk was lovely and accessible and left me filled with electricity for what spring has to offer. More in the indigo dyeing department. I loved the process when I tried it in 2014 and love the results. I loved chatting with her about motherhood and what it means to be a hand quilter. I look forward to future workshops and learning more from her. And I can't wait for her Guide Books!
At the end of her talk was a lady waiting to say hello. It was Lotta Jansdotter. Did I witness the meeting of two brilliant textile artists with ideas for future collaborations? Oh we hope so.
In good company. My quilt hangs adjacent to Season Evans' quilt in the hand work section.
And there was also the overall show of QuiltCon to enjoy, and the shopping (I could have spent a fortune on double gauze...) and meeting fellow quilters whose work I love and whom I've only met in the digital realm. Natalie Bearden is one of them. I loved meeting her and her daughter and chatting about quilting, color, being from the Southern Hemisphere (she is Brazilian) and motherhood. I loved feeling all the different textiles each vendor had to offer and picking up a pattern here or there in the attempt to begin making my daughter clothes. I loved seeing Season Evans work in person, hanging near mine. I loved the energy of being in a room full of others who are possessed by the process of creating and building quilts.
Congratulations to everyone whose work was in the show, and to the Modern Quilt Guild for organizing a well run event that inspired so many of us. You guys, and you quilters, rock.
I leave you with a few of my favorite quilts in the show. What was your favorite thing about QuiltCon 2015?
Congratulations to everyone whose work was in the show, and to the Modern Quilt Guild for organizing a well run event that inspired so many of us. You guys, and you quilters, rock.
I leave you with a few of my favorite quilts in the show. What was your favorite thing about QuiltCon 2015?
"In Anniston" by Chawne Kimber from Pennsylvania
Maker Unknown, from a special exhibition about Quilts from the 1970s
"Grand Pineapple" by Allison Lee from Raleigh, N.C.
"Wakefield" by Liz Harvatine
Maker Unknown, from a special exhibition about Quilts from the 1970s
RSS Feed