Quilt Journalist Tells All!
 
A Newsletter from Meg Cox                                  July,  2014
 
 

 Who won the Quilt Alliance contest. And what you can do to win in 2015.
 
 
         Pauline Salzman's witty quilt "News Hounds" won first prize in the Alliance's 2014, which had the theme Inspired By. It got the most votes from members.
 
         You should go to the Alliance website to view ALL the winning quilts, including the one chosen by the judges for the Handi Quilter Grand Prize. 
 
         I am kind of embarrassed that I ran out of time to make a quilt this year for the contest (I can't win as a board member, but I love helping out the Alliance and I love knowing my contest quilts are permanently archived on the Quilt Index.) 
 
         But you can be sure I won't miss next year's contest, partly because the theme is so juicy!  The Alliance just announced that the theme for 2015 will be (drum roll) "Animals We Love." I'm thinking mine will include lizards, my son's first pet loves, but there are so many possibilities. (Naturally, I am hoping Pauline Salzman will be jazzed and contribute more of her beautifully made and coveted doggy pieces.)
 
         On August 8, go to the Quilt Alliance website, where the new contest logo will be unveiled, along with all the dates and details. I'll keep you up to date on the contest, plus the auction dates for the Inspired By quilts. 
 
 




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Who is Meg Cox?  

  
                            
Journalist /Author/Teacher

 

 Traditions Expert

 

 President, Quilt Alliance
 

 

Hot new lecture:
Better Quilt Photos NOW!


Click on book cover to buy. Click on Meg's photo to visit website, blog, etc.

 book cover

 

 600 pages, $14.86 at Amazon

 

 

 

 

 
click to visit website
 
 
 
Update: The Museum Said "Yes"
 
  

      I promised to report back on my efforts to find a museum home for two quilts donated by a member of my church here in Princeton. Luckily, one of the curators I know well was interested, and now I have gotten formal word that both this unusual crazy quilt and the fan quilt will become part of the great quilt collection of the American Folk Art Museum in NYC.
      Should you have terrific vintage quilts looking for a museum home, I strongly urge you to start with an appraisal, as I did (the photo shows appraiser Dana Balsamo studying the quilt on my living room floor). The fact that these quilts were striking and pristine, and that they were a gift helped, but remember that museums are more careful than ever not to take on new material unless it is exceptional and they can afford to store and care for it. 

July Giveaway!!!
Two Winners This Month!

 
  This month, TWO lucky people will win a 6-month pass to take ANY classes they want at Creative Bug. This includes all the patchwork classes, as well as everything else. (NB: the 2 ads from Creative Bug for a free trial on the site will give you 2 weeks of free classes.)
 
The winners will be chosen at random from e-mails received by midnight August 1. To enter, send an email to [email protected]. (Only subscribers are eligible to win.) 
   
    The June winner of the American Made fabric, the book by Mary Fons and the Indygo Junction book was Mary Ellen Lemen.
 
Dear Friends--                  
         My life is as quilt-centric as ever. I just got back from a board meeting of the nonprofit Quilt Alliance, and attended my first Slow Stitching Salon with Mark Lipinski, Liza Lucy and other friends committed to digging deeper into our craft. 
         As I told the Alliance, this will be my final year (of six) to serve as president, so prepare to hear a lot about this wonderful organization and the exciting year ahead.
        I'm psyched to introduce you to Patrick Finn and his mind-blowing new book about Indian quilts, a true labor of love. There is also a feature this month about two magazines: one shutting down and another starting up.                Finally, I'm thrilled to announce my new lead sponsor: Creative Bug. They've contributed this month's giveaway, two passes to take ANY of their online classes for a full six months. But everyone wins here: click on one of their two ads in this issue, to take free classes for 2 full weeks!

Patrick Finn's Amazing New Book:
75 Different Names for Quilt



     The son of a Marine, Patrick Finn is a former hairdresser and trained photographer who first went to India in 1985 on a pilgrimage to visit his guru. He stayed in that vast country for seven weeks on his first trip, and the spiritual connection he made was a deep one. It also marked the beginning of his love affair with Indian textiles, as he watched beautiful saris being made by the side of the road. 
 
      When he came back home to Taos, New Mexico, Patrick got to know a man who was importing textiles from India. Patrick was fascinated by both the textiles and by how little the importer knew about them: who made them, when or where. 
 
       With a half-formed idea about earning a living by turning Indian cottons into nightgowns, Patrick moved to India in 2005, living first in Vrindayan, about three hours south of Delhi. His business never got off the ground, but he was hooked on Indian textiles. "I started buying quilts, especially kanthas (the T is silent). I loved the older ones because of the workmanship and immense amounts of embroidery," he says. Eventually, he started working with Dr. Patricia Stoddard, an expert on another type of quilt made in India and Pakistan, ralli quilts, who consulted with the University of Nebraska's textile department.
 
         Patrick began formally researching six different types of Indian quilts for the International Quilt Study Center and Museum (IQSCM), receiving a fellowship to cover some of his expenses. Later, he worked with philanthropist and quilt collector Robert James to buy quilts for the museum. If he spotted a quilt for the IQSCM that cost less than $400, he could go ahead and buy it during his travels. Anything over that amount required paperwork and approvals.
 
         But Patrick Finn wasn't just looking to buy quilts: he really wanted to understand the cultural, social and religious context of the quilts. From the time he started researching his book to the publication date (last week), the project consumed 7 years of his life.  The results of his search are astounding: the book catalogs 25 unique genres of quilts made between the 17th century and the present, which he photographed in rural villages, museums and collector's studios. 

 
 
 
       The hunt was exhausting. "If I saw intriguing quilts hanging over a wall next to a house, I couldn't just knock on the front door unless I knew what to call them," explains Patrick. "There are 75 different names for quilts in India. They rarely use the word quilt. So I had to know whether to ask for a khodi, or a razai or a kanduri, which is what they have in northern Uttar Padesh."
 
        Not only that. "Imagine if I just knocked on your front door and asked to see your blankets?" he says. "I had a lot of explaining to do. It helped that I usually had a driver with me and sometimes a translator: I only speak 'child Hindi,' with good vocabulary but lousy grammar."
 
       I don't even know where to start in describing the richness, integrity and artistry of this amazing book. Patrick Finn's depth of knowledge about everything from religious history to needlework technique impresses, but so does his evocative writing about the country he calls "the most maternal land on Earth." This is a well-researched, layered book that is never pedantic. In the author's note at the start, he says his book "tells the story of women and saints, families and famine, worship and war."  And it is every bit as epic as he suggests.
 



       Patrick is fascinated with the way quilting evolved, in part as a way of recycling saris. "A sari is a large piece of cloth, but if you burn a big hole in it, you're not going to keep wearing it. Embroidery was a logical way to reinforce the fabric, and quilting allowed the cloth to be used as a garment, bag, bed covering or even a fan."  Sometimes, piled up quilts become their own bed. "I asked one woman who had many quilts why she had so many," Patrick recalls. "She said that when the relatives come, she has to have some place for them to sleep."

        You may not be able or interested in spending nearly $100 to buy this deluxe, slip-covered book (that's the discount price at Amazon and B&N online). But I hope you will at least let Patrick tempt you into looking at the amazing rich traditions of Indian quilts. Please, go check out his blog, and watch this excellent 12-minute documentary on the book. 
Meet the New Sponsor:
 
     I am delighted to welcome my new lead sponsor, Creative Bug, known for its beautifully organized and photographed online classes in all things crafty. There are 300 classes currently offered on everything from knitting and patchwork to printmaking, garment-making and home decor. 
 
     Sure, you can take a single class on Creative Bug, but it's set up primarily as a subscription-based service. It costs $9.95 a month to take absolutely anything and everything on offer. And there are definite advantages with this model, says Kelly Wilkinson, the editorial director. "Especially for the really curious quilters, this allows you to follow and grow your interests. You might start because you follow Kaffe Fassett or Amy Butler, but then you can expose yourself to a new style or aesthetic. You might love quilting, but then decide you'd like to sew a garment or make a necklace."
 
      Lots more quilting classes are coming, but the current crop includes superlative teachers and well-known quilters like Sue Nickels, Kathy Doughty and others. Creative Bug offers a full range of videos teaching single techniques, as well as how to make a project from beginning to end. Plus, many free tutorials.
 
      Go to the page for a teacher you like, say Liza Lucy, and you can choose from everything from her free how-tos on basics like rotary cutting to full projects, like the gorgeous quilt below. I also really love the (free) video bios of every teacher, which give a glimpse into their studios and private lives.
 
 
 
       If you aren't familiar with Creative Bug, then here's a fantastic opportunity to check them out. Their ads shown at left and below explain how to sign up for two FREE weeks, taking any classes you choose. Plus, you can enter for the giveaway this issue: two lucky people will win 6 whole months of free Creative Bug classes. Dive in! You'll be pleased. 

The Magazine File:
One Dies, Another is Born
       
      The first issue of The Quilt Life magazine came out in October 2014, full of great stories about quilts and quilters and the colorful personalities of creative directors Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. To me, it was a breath of fresh air at a time when most quilt magazines were only printing patterns. 
 
      In the four years since, I've loved this publication as a reader and a writer. I contributed many feature articles and profiles, and a regular feature that focused on "unexpected" quilters. So I'm very sad to report that the August issue, shown here, is the next to last one. October's issue will be the 28th, and the last. 
 
       I won't do a postmortem here about print media generally,  and I don't know the details about why this particular magazine failed. But I hope you will try to find the August issue to read my article "The Global Quilt Quest of Robert James." It tells the story about quilt collector Robert James' quest to collect quilts from every country. Patrick Finn, whose new book on Indian quilts is reviewed above, is one of a number of special experts fanning the globe in this search. 
 
 
     Jenny Doan and her wonderful family own the Missouri Star Quilt Company, which was recently featured on the NBC Nightly News. She's the next Eleanor Burns, a famous simplifier who has legions of fan. She earned hers by producing hundreds of free YouTube tutorials, and through her company's shop and website, which focus especially on precuts. (The store actually won't carry fabric from companies that don't do precuts.)
 
      After being approached by Fons & Porter to do a magazine, Jenny Doan provided all the projects for Quilting Quickly, a precuts-only magazine. After a year, the two companies went their separate ways. Starting in February, Jenny and Missouri Star have been offering their own quilt publication, Block. This new magazine also includes only projects made from precuts, but it carries no advertising. Already, its readers number in the tens of thousands.
 
        I've seen the latest copy and can promise you that the magazine is gorgeously photographed, with thorough directions. Issues of Block can be found at several hundred quilt shops and many independent bookstores. Jenny's fans can also buy it directly from the Missouri Star website, for $5.99 an issue. Go here to learn more and subscribe. 
 
  



     Thanks for spending some of your valuable time with me. I hope you enjoyed this issue.

     Remember, the best advertising is word of mouth, so please share this issue with your friends. I'll see you back here in August. And don't forget to tell me if there is a person, organization or event you'd like me to investigate and feature in a future issue.  
     Quilt on!
     Meg

Reach me at [email protected] 



Note: to start your free 2-week trial, see instructions in Creative Bug's ad in the lefthand column.