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Post by jufergu on Oct 26, 2013 19:05:26 GMT
Our small fiber art group took a road trip to St. Louis, Mo. yesterday. It is about 3 1/2 hours away. St. Louis University hosted Quilt National this year at their museum. Q.N. travels for 2 years at a time and every other year it shows in St. Louis. This time it was totally different from past years. Hardly anything representational at all. Everything was extremely abstract with loads of mixed media. I mean, I have never seen so many different medias and techniques used at the same time. Also, the quilting was almost all just straight line quilting. No fancy patterns or jigsaw puzzle meandering. Just very clean lines. So, the quilting was not really part of the composition, just a unifying pattern of lines. I doubt that anyone in our quilt guild would have liked it. These are works of art using fiber. Many of them were stitched onto canvas, and the edges were just raw with zig zag stitching on them. The canvas backing made them have more weight and they use some mighty thin batting. Hand stitching seemed to be popular. Very tight rows of hand stitching that slightly puckered the lines.
This was very inspiring for me, as I would love to do more abstract work, but have held back a little due to the quilters traditional ideas. I rarely exhibit in quilt shows, and only enter in the art quilt category. I always win prizes in these shows. Judges like what I do, but quilters think I have no place with them. So, this exhibit just gave me the confidence to follow my own path. I love what the traditional quilters do. They are spectacular. But I don't want to be like them. Back to the studio. No pictures. They would not let us take any.
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Post by lyn on Oct 26, 2013 21:27:48 GMT
Being 'of a certain age', I was brought up to admire, and strive for, neatness and accuracy in all things sewing and knitting, and the skills have certainly come in useful.
However, I am indebted to my daughter for showing me the beauty of creating 'organic' a.k.a. 'messy' artworks.
I admire the dedication and skills of traditional quilting and the resulting beautiful pieces, but it doesn't enthuse me enough to pick up a needle. But when I see works, such as Judy describes above, I desperately want to join in with the fun!
Enjoy your studio time Judy!
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Post by Shepherdess on Oct 26, 2013 23:59:17 GMT
I know exactly what you mean Lyn. Everything neat and tidy and just so. It has taken me a real effort to go with organic edges in my felt. Judy I am so happy you found the show inspiring and I hope validating. Your work is very good. Maybe you need to put your efforts into growing your fiber arts group rather than the quilting group.
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Post by MTRuth on Oct 27, 2013 1:08:22 GMT
It is always good to see that others are appreciative of your kind of art. I think the mixed media world has really progressed in the last few years. Good for all of us.
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Post by zed on Oct 27, 2013 9:24:10 GMT
I know what you mean too, Lyn It's funny when you talk about quilters sometimes, Judy, some of them sound very stuck up and snobby. It's probably very regional, but 'quilt' is used as a 'friendly' kind of insult here, meaning someone is 'soft'.
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Post by Pandagirl on Oct 29, 2013 23:20:28 GMT
I've always been more comfortable with organic/abstract, but find myself doing more realistic work lately. Go figure. ;-). It's all beautiful and has a place and admiration for the work on different levels.
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Post by koffipot on Oct 30, 2013 14:17:22 GMT
Wouldn't it be a very sad and boring world if we all liked the same things? Zed - I've never heard the word "quilt" used in that sense, it must be a local term.
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Post by Shepherdess on Oct 30, 2013 17:10:01 GMT
Zed, my mom used to use flannel that way. A flannel is a soft face cloth for those not from the part of the England my mom is from. Judith You are so right it would be boring if we all liked the same things.
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Post by koffipot on Oct 30, 2013 17:26:14 GMT
Yes Ann, we wash with 'flannels' - even though they're made of terry towelling. Flannel is also talking around a tricky subject without actually getting to the point - Politicians are past masters at this.
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Post by zed on Oct 31, 2013 10:26:21 GMT
Heh, we always end up talking about our different use of the same words! I'd forgotten about that use of flannel, Judith It always makes me smile when Americans talk about someone wearing 'flannel' or 'flannels', and I picture a shirt made of face-cloths We do have flannelette sheets which are the same brushed cotton as flannel shirts. I think it is local to the NW, Judith, probably scouse, they use 'soft' a lot.
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Post by Shepherdess on Oct 31, 2013 18:55:22 GMT
I am from Cheshire.
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Post by zed on Nov 1, 2013 8:25:49 GMT
I was from Cheshire until they moved the boundaries
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Post by Shepherdess on Nov 1, 2013 12:48:14 GMT
They do that here too. Just move things or rename them. Its usually real-estate people and builders that like the expensive areas to be bigger.
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