Saturday, September 9, 2017

Good news!


Here's a long story about a small quilt.  If you've been reading my blog for years you've heard parts of it before.  It started out in 2010 as the leftover bits from a group project organized by Terry Jarrard-Dimond, in which a bunch of people collaborated on a quilt design.  After Terry sewed the final version together, I asked if I could have the scraps, and made two small quilts.

Or more accurately, two small quilt tops.  Only one of them got finished at the time because I wasn't pleased with the design.  I carried the other one around with me for years as a workshop sample, and at one workshop I had it pinned up on the design wall.  I was talking about how you should always evaluate your work, and that it's often more important to understand why certain things didn't work than to understand your successes.  I pointed to the quilt top on the wall and said I never felt that the top half played well with the bottom half.  And then I heard these words come out of my mouth:  "What I really should do is cut it in half, right about here..."

So I went home and did just that, separating the Siamese twins.  And they have been much happier as companions than they were together.






















Left Coast

And now the latest chapter in the story.  I entered one of the quilts in the 24th Annual Juried Art Exhibition at the Krempp Gallery in Jasper IN.  I've been in that show several times before and try to enter every year; it's a beautiful space, the show attracts a wide variety of entries in all mediums, and best of all, the jurors seem to be very happy with fiber art.  In fact, two years ago another of my quilts won best in show.

Turns out that Left Coast, one of the Siamese twins, won best in show this year.  I am so proud of her!  If you're anywhere in southwest Indiana in the next month, drop by Jasper and check out the show -- there's plenty more fiber art besides mine.


10 comments:

  1. Oh well done! Happy for you you.
    Sandy

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  2. Congratulations! Just curious why you decided to enter only one, and how you chose which one to enter.

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    1. Actually I had a big quilt that I wanted to enter, and then needed something for my second entry. I think this is the better of the two twins so I chose it.

      I kind of thought that if either one got a prize it would be the other one, but you can never predict what a judge is going to think.

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  3. Congratulations! It's a beautiful quilt. In my dreams I might be in Indiana as I was born and raised there. i always smile when you mention my home state. But it's a long way from Northern California.

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  4. I love this quilt. It calls out from across the room...the black and white bits, interplay of solids and surfaced design fabric...strong line, repeated shape. Are some or all of your fabrics hand -dyed? At art shows and galleries I always play the game, "If you could only take one piece home.....?"
    Left Coast would be my choice!


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    1. yes, many of the fabrics were hand-dyed and some even screenprinted -- they came from 20 different people so there was a lot of variety

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  5. Congratulations! From ugly duckling to twin swans. And now you can take it to classes and show the results of good editing!

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  6. Congrats!! So cool that she won! Definitely a reminder to really look at what works...

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