Category Archives: Quilting News This Week

Ruminations of a mad quilter/facebooker

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Authentic Twist

I was chatting on The Friends of Fabric Patchwork and Quilting Fanpage on Facebook today with Sarah of Sewn… her blog is The Last Piece... about a photo of a quilt which I had shown there to try to promote Australian quilting. The flickr photo does not have much documentation, it simply says quilts as a tag. Sarah said that it is run by someone who looks after the website of the Hunter’s Hills Quilters in Sydney. It turns out that I ascribed the quilt incorrectly to the person whose stream it was in as there was nothing else there to say any differently!

The quilt was actually made as a group quilt, by the Hunter’s Hill Quilters which includes Sarah as one of their members, for the raffle at their yearly show. You will find the quilt here. Oh and there appears to be a flickr group showcasing the work of the group.

Cascade Lily is an Australian photostream on flickr I discovered today where the exact opposite is the case! Her photos have some rights reserved which means I can actually show you here the photos as long as I attribute back to her….which obviously I would always do. Usually I ask first by email …so that I have it in writing that they said yes… but this method of attribution avoids all that and is such a great way to share work that I am thinking of doing that with most of my photos.

Table runner for Carol

Anyway Cascade Lily added links to her blog posts about the photo and along with the attribution also mention the name of the design of her quilt and explained about the fabric etc. Fabulous for we who live and breathe quilting!

Cascade Lily lives in Canberra  and is in the Army Reserve. She added these stunning quilted pieces to the group today and I was so excited and thrilled and ….they are up for QOTW and POTW! The quilting on the tablerunner is wonderful…pyramids…and the rail fence..though so simple a pattern is wonderfully sophisticated here. I won’t give away all her secrets…do visit her here on her blog …all I will say is that there is one lucky school teacher at the moment!

By the way I find it very intersting to read of the other meaning for rumination…..regurgitating so that animals can make more digestible …or something like that…maybe that is what I did today…..made more palatable a situation where I could not actually digest or benefit from my meal…in my case my earlier poorly attributed quilt ! Well I did say ruminations of a mad quilter/facebooker!

 

All photos are courtesy of cascade lily on flickr

 

UPDATE..Lily is so honest she just let me know what her inspiration was for the quilt…although I have seen the block  before many times and well…that is why she is up for QOTW! Cause hers is such an original take on it. The colourway …the limited amounts of fabrics…it is a very original take on what I believe is a block in the public domain. Well done Lily! And Lily…you have actually inspired me…can’t say what I am going to do yet but it is down to you!!!!

Full Attribution …revisited

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I have had an interesting time since publishing my last post. I was savaged by one member of our group who then cut and ran but more astounding to me was the lack of actual response for or against the issue of fair attribution of inspiration of work by quilters and artisans. I had talked to some people on facebook who were very upset about it and others who thought a simple error had been made but still needed to be addressed. By the way it has been now….Stella was influenced by the actual floor of the cathedral and by the method of Colleen Wise.…so there was definitely an issue of attribution.

I was savaged on flickr for taking the award away while I investigated the matter…I think that is what is done in sport etc while investigations go on.  I am not and have never said that I am anything but an encourager of quilters …so I am not really sure of the procedure…I just knew that I had to explain why I had removed the photo and the award…although on the surface it looks as if it did not matter as very few people have been prepared to comment on the issue apart from Joan and Ruth and the previous ones on Facebook.

That post had seventy views…  and of those views

30 were from people reading the blog from the link on flickr

17 views were from quilterblogs updates

5 or so from the facebook discussion

The remaining were people rechecking the post and the person who savaged me accounted for several visits though she was not prepared to speak her mind here! What is interesting is that there are several people whom I know had considered stopping blogging recently due to supposed stealing of their ideas….and not a peep to be heard from anybody who had read their posts…..one of the posts had 95 comments!

So I do thank dear Joan who is always level headed and Ruth who is as honest as they come and admits when she is torn about something.

I have been rethinking my habits online. I do spend a lot of time on flickr looking for wonderful quilts which will inspire the more experienced quilters and obviously as with many others a lot of time is spent in the encouragement of both new quilters and quilters with works in progress.  I also have spent a fair bit of time on the facebook fanpage....which helps show the selection of QOTW and POTW photos. So I guess what I am saying is I am not sure how much time I am now willing to spend on the flickr side of things…it does not really seem worth the effort when issues like this arise. I think the facebook page is worth developing as it opens quilting up to people who are not on flickr and I know there are a lot of people on facebook who do not blog …although I think that many of them are involved with quilt guilds etc.

I have met some wonderful people through flickr …Ruth, Betty, Sally and Joan…who started a blog after meeting us crazed bloggers…and she now has more readers than moi! Trish is another, and several older ladies whose health is compromised and can no longer quilt but enjoy the companionship of fellow quilters. What I am finding though is that Facebook offers more immediate feedback and actually I have met more people who are willing to express themselves honestly through facebook in six months than I have in over two years of blogging and involvement in flickr.

I have decided to spend some of the time away from flickr to keep more up to date with blogging through quilterblogs.com and while I was there today I found [on the blogroll of another blogger]  the blog of Michelle Hill whom I have long adored…she is an expert in the field of quilting using William Morris as inspiration…and I found her link to flickr.…oh my…this has all her fabulous published quilts. I cannot recommend this highly enough….Australian art quilting at its finest! I will be sending links to her from facebook soon so check it out there ….you will be mesmerised! She has a book available on Amazon.com which I have put on my wishlist!

Okay after a wonderful evening last night at Nida watching my friend’s grand daughter and the rest of the dance troupe I feel inspired to finish sewing one of my quilts. There was the most fabulous tribute to Michael Jackson last night….although it was a tad loud! The costumes were fabulous though…if I had my time over I would definitely have gone into  costume design.

Full Attribution

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I removed our latest QOTW as it came to my attention that the quilt appeared to be quite like….well almost the same…with slightly different colours … as Kaffe Fassett’s Venetian Tiles quilt in his book Patchwork from 1997. The quilt is definitely deserving in workmanship and sheer talent of the award…choosing colours without a kit for Kaffe’s quilts is a really difficult task and one which is deserving of recognition but unfortunately this quilt had only this in the information about it:

“One of my quilts designed after the floor of the St Marco Cathedrale in Venice/Italy”

I have since asked the quilter to add it to the Kaffe Fassett Love group here and she did so …so am thinking this was probably an innocent mistake…however we must be vigilant in defending the work of our designers…too many are losing valuable money through the people who knowingly infringe their copyright. We all know designers/artists who have to work at a different job to put food on the table…..every time someone makes something from a photo they have seen here without acknowledging the inspiration is money out of the pocket of that designer and also a betrayal of the community we have here.

By all means be inspired by artisans….they love that but tell everyone where that inspiration came from. Artisans love to see what people are making from their patterns…I often let them know if I see something in the group…and they are nearly always excited!

This is Veryty’s version…fully attributed

I do see that the quilt was entitled Venetian Tiles…so I believe the fault is also mostly mine here…I knew there was something about this quilt which caused me to wonder about making it QOTW….indeed I did not make Ann Stewart’s gorgeous quilt QOTW because she so strongly defended the honour of the designer Nancy Crowe that it seemed that the quilt Venetian tiles seemed more original by comparison…though Ann’s was exquisitely crafted. I am so pleased to have the fan page on Facebook which enabled me to clearly see where the inspiration came from for Venetian Tiles. I also see that the quilter on other photos clearly said “my design”…..but it is as important to acknowledge who actually did design the one’s we didn’t!

So I would like to apologise ….for giving out an an award then taking it way and also apologise to the designers in our groups….I will try to be more vigilant…and I am introducing probably the most important group rule…attribution of inspiration or design….this also includes whether it is a kit. Thankyou Sarah for your input and Joy and Hildegard on Friends of FPAQ

UPDATE …Stella has been in touch and she actually based the quilt on the actual floor…which was what I took her to mean when I saw the quilt. I love the use of purples and think it is a wonderful interpretation of a real life artwork. I just wish I could see it for myself…the floor…and the quilt!  I have reinstated her award as I feel it is a remarkable quilt from someone with very real talent in the arts field…the shades are sublime in the quilt. I am grateful that Stella took this well and is updating her photo description with information about her quilt ‘s journey to completion.

New Magazine…International Style

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International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene was launched onto the world today …

with a quilt by our very own Sarah Fielke on the cover!.

This is a part of the Quilting Arts range of magazines and I am told it went worldwide today.

As you can see it is exquisitely photographed…although the above photo was deemed too country for the first edition…how times have changed since I first started quilting nine years ago…country reigned supreme then! And you guessed right…that is a quilt by Brandon Mably and Liza Prior Lucy!

 

Read for yourselves the background to the photoshoots here on Pokey’s blog...its really worth the effort!

Can’t wait to get this magazine!

All photo’s are the intellectual property of Interweave and Quilting Arts, thanks so much for the use of them.

On The Wings Of A Dream

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On the Wings of a Dream ©2008 Caryl Bryer Fallert

The indescribable talent of Caryl Bryer Fallert was recognised in Houston this year as Best In Show.

Caryl has provided a link to a page where she explains her inspiration, motivation and how she went about achieving her dream…her vision for this quilt….in more ways than one. I cannot recommend highly enough that you read the story behind this quilt…but be warned…a pot of comforting camomile or other soothing tea and a box of tissues is simply a necessity!

On the Wings of a Dream ©2008 Caryl Bryer Fallert

I recently purchased one of Caryl’s kits…The Dancing Tree, to make for my son.

I look forward to starting this.

Caryl has designed the most amazing ranges of fabric for Bernatex ..her Aurora Borialis is to die for! Gradations is next on my list of must have fabrics! Glacier Park is also stunning.

She also has patterns, DVD’S and books available on her website. I wish I lived closer so that I could attend her workshops. Oh to be in Kentucky….Padukah …to be exact with all the artisans! Caryl…please let us know if you ever come Down Under.

She also has some of her art quilts for sale...a rare opportunity to purchase an artform which is quite like no other.