OK folks…I’m trying to decide.  Do I keep the current/past flags display and counter, or get the “NeoPod” instead.  You can click on it to see the flags/nation/visitor count, see the dots on a map and other stuff, but the NeoPod is dark, and on the flags page keeps moving (which I find a bit distracting).

Tell me which one I should keep… I need to decide by Friday, when I need to renew one or the other for the coming year…your choices are:

Keep the old, LONG display

Go for the NeoPod which moves sometimes…..

Thanks!

Yesterday I had a grand time!  It was my first chance to get to Augusta (Maine) for the quarterly statewide meeting of the Pine Tree Quilt Guild.  Better yet, I was the featured speaker, and debuted my lecture on Journal Quilts and Journals for Quilters.  The lady who invited me to speak said I should plan on 100-150 attendees, so I brought 150 handouts… and we ran out!   So I am going to post the contents of my handout here, at the end of this message.  Feel free to select and copy that section to print out at home!

Also, I realized I have never added my 2007 and 2008 journal quilts to my website, so I have done that today, too.  I have shared these journal quilts on the blog before, but here they are again.  The first quilt is Windows of Hope, picturing a little girl in the rubble of bombed out Tokyo circa 1946:

I’ll add the detail photos to the galleries along with technique information, otherwise this blogpost will be miles too long! (addendum:  I realized I never blogged about my 2008 journal quilts…eeek!  So I’ll do that in the next week or two….)  The next journal is Ancient Earth, which didn’t make it in to the juried 2008 Journal quilt exhibit, but I love it nonetheless.

And finally, Aslan’s Song, also made for (but didn’t get in) to the 2008 Journal quilt exhibit.  Details about the title and techniques are in the gallery section.   Click on the title for the link.

Last but not least, here is the handout from the Journal Quilts lecture:

The Journal Quilts and Journaling for Quilters
with Sarah Ann Smith

Websites:

www.quiltart.com
www.sarahansmith.com
www.quiltingarts.com
www.dickblick.com
www.mariaelkins.com
www.beadjournalproject.com

Books:
•    Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project, Karey Patterson Bresenhan
•    Art Quilt Workbook, Jane Davila and Elin Waterston
•    The Decorated Page, and The Decorated Journal, Gwen Diehn
•    Journal Revolution, Rise up and Create, Woods and Dinino
•    Quilters Playtime, Dianne Hire
•    Thinking Outside the Box, Sandi Cummings
•    Quilting Arts magazine
•    Cloth Paper Scissors magazine

Ideas for journal quilts and journals:

•    Beautiful things
•    What have you collected?
•    Things that make me mad!
•    Places you’d like to go / see / visit
•    Good smells
•    Favorite foods
•    Quilts I’d make if I had the skills and time
•    Song titles/lines/phrases
•    Quotations
•    Make 100 stamps
•    Flowers
•    Groceries
•    If I looked in your closet, what colors would I see?
•    Favorite clothes/shoes you had
•    Who inspires you?
•    Tell me something good that happened to you today!
•    Cut  fabric swatches and write why you like them
•    Pictures from a  magazine ..why do you like them?

•    Focus on….

Line Circles Numbers Letters Leaves Colors…..
Bugs you love/hate (or animals, or birds)
Maps…your home, your town, your mind, an imaginary planet….
Favorite books
Hubcaps, or how to fill a circle….
Artists you admire (Matisse!  Van Gogh!)
Your friends’ best qualities

What you need to journal:      a notebook, a pen or pencil, and an eraser!  Awake helps, too…
Optional:  glue stick, camera, pens, watercolors, waterbrush

Be Inspired!  Journal, quilt, and make art!!!!

Wow….stupid people aren’t just on Wall Street; they apparently also inhabit the upper echelons of JoAnns Fabrics.  As a result of their decision to ban the March issue of Quilters Home Magazine because of an article evaluating controversial art quilts, I’d like to issue a call to boycott JoAnns until they reconsider their ill-advised decision and re-stock the issue.  Basically, JoAnns has decided that we are too stooopid to make our own decisions about what we want to read.  NOT.  Neither am I too stupid to decide where to spend my money.  I will spend it elsewhere!  I do not need to be told by someone else what I *should* or shouldn’t read.

Fundamentally, limiting public discourse –censorship– is against what we stand for as a nation.  There is a reason why Freedom of Speech is the FIRST amendment to the US Constitution, and the decision makers at JoAnns would do well to re-visit their high school civics texts along with a couple hundred years of history.

What follows is Mark Lipinski’s post which he shared on his yahoo group, Pickle Road (and printed here with his blessing).  To join the group, click here to be directed to the group home page.

Hello Pickles,

Here’s the scoop. I’m very sad to report that Jo-Ann Fabric and
Crafts has made the decision to ban the March issue of Mark
Lipinski’s Quilter’s Home magazine due to an article on “Shocking
Quilts and Controversial Patchwork: How Far is too Far?” Which
explores the ongoing debate as to whether art quilts have a place in
quilt shows, and if so, who makes the choice as to what is
appropriate or not. Of course, you must see the irony in this.

The quilts involved are:

The L Word by Diane Johns
God of OUr Silent Tears I by Gwendolyn Magee
Southern Heritage/Southern Shame by Gwendolyn Magee
I Remain by Randall Cook
Uncertainty by Galye McKay
Jesus Get Your Gun by Shawn Quinlan
Helping Hand by Mary Beth Bellah

In the article are photos of 7 art quilts that have either caused
controversy, raised an eyebrow, or have been banned in art exhibits
and/or quilt shows at one time or another (most, if not all, of these
quilts have been hung in public shows without incident at some
point) — and they range from political, social, religious, and
sexual (heterosexual and homosexual)issues. Nothing could be rated
more than PG-13, if that. That said, to be sure that all appropriate
precautions were taken; I had the magazine that are sold on the
newsstand wrapped in a clear plastic bag so to protect anyone who
might find it objectionable (which, of course, is the point of the
article).

However, the issue has been still been banned, which I find
personally upsetting because I think it’s a good article, but also
upsetting as part of the press being censored, art being censored,
and as a quilter who is one who doesn’t believe that a quilt is only
for use on a bed, that women/quilters can make their own decisions
about what they’d like to read/see, and more, that it pains me that
the industry at large is still so seemingly out of touch with who the
2009 woman/man/quilter is, as we continue to fight the stereotype
that we are all not little old boring subservient church ladies .

I’m really upset over it. This is a valid topic for a quilting
magazine and to me; it feels like someone painting the clothes over
Michelangelo’s paintings (which had been done).

Oh well, that’s the news. Please, support the magazine this month.
If you normally buy QH at Jo-Ann please know that you can find this
issue at Sam’s Club, instead. Also, don’t forget to buy it from
eQuilter.com and other online shops and TOTALLY you local quilt
shops! You can also find it at Barnes & Noble and Borders, etc.

Thanks! I’m sorry about all of this,and am really crushed and
confused, but please pass the information around so other quilters
know where they can find this issue.

xoxom (mark’s signature line)

End of quoted message.

To write to JoAnns and express your opinion on this matter, write to

Darrell Webb,
Chairman and CEO of Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
5555 Darrow Rd.
Hudson, OH 44236
Main number: 330-656-2600

Lisa Greb
Director of Public Relations
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
5555 Darrow Rd.
Hudson, OH 44236
330-463-3442
lisa.greb@jo-annstores.com

CK Media publishes Quilters Home Magazine and a number of other well known magazines.  To express your support for them and their policies encouraging open discussion, buy their magazines

McCall’s Quilting
McCall’s Quick Quilts
Quiltmaker
Quilter’s Newsletter
Sew News
and write to them at:

CK Media CEO, Will Marks, at wmarks@ckmedia.com

Thanks!

I subscribe to A Word A Day, published by Anu Garg and delivered to your mailbox five days a week.  Each day you get a new word, often esoteric, with definition, the best etymoligies and derivations I’ve ever seen (he takes it back through ancient Greek to Indo-European roots quite often, or Sanskrit or whatever…cool!).  Anyway, he gives the definition, usage in a contemporary text (today’s quotation was from an Aussie newspaper),  and a Thought for today.  I often like the “thought” best of all…here is today’s:

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY (Jan. 20, 2009):
And this our life, exempt from public haunt, / Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, / Sermons in stones, and good in everything. -William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)

You can find Anu’s website at www.wordsmith.org and AWAD here.  It’s free. And interesting!

Before life ran away from me (again), I said I’d add more pics of my new quilt storage.   Previously, the quilts had been flat on the bed, which was great for the quilts but not so good if you wanted to use the bed (which meant moving about 30+ quilts I think…I really ought to count how many I’ve made, shouldn’t I?).  Anyway, remember the tubes which I covered with batting and muslin?  Next, you roll your quilt on the tube; For most of my rolls, I have two or three quilts per tube:

Quilt rolled on tube

Next I made a muslin tube/sleeve  (I just used the serger, left the seams on the outside).  I cut 1 1/2″ wide strips of pretty fabrics (or rather, the “why did I buy these 14 years ago? fabrics”), folded them wrong sides together and serged to make ties.  I placed a tie about 4 inches down from either end of the tube/sleeve, and spaced about 14-16 inches apart down the center.

Quilt in musling sleeve, tied

Slide your rolled quilt inside the sleeve; it is easier if you place a plastic bag over the end of the tube that goes in first.  Since both ends of the tube are open, you can just slip the plastic bag off the end once the quilt is inside.   I cut the muslin the length of my tubes (54″) plus about 2-4 extra inches (for gathering at the ends) by about 22 inches wide.  If you have 40-44 inch muslin, just cut down the center to whatever length.  The completed tube is large enough to accomodate several quilts rolled on one tube.  Once inside, make a tuck at the long seamline to fold excess muslin neatly and tie.  For the moment, I have safety-pinned a post-it-note with the contents of each roll to the end of the muslin tube so I can identify what is where…I’ll do something nicer eventually.

Under the bed, I have two tall-lamp-moving boxes (only one in this picture, added the second one later), plus some under-bed storage boxes from Target.  The quilts that are rolled on the tubes are in the lamp-boxes (in this picture, just to the right of center) and over on the far left.  The second lamp-box went on the far left.

Rolled quilts and boxes under the bed

You can see swimming pool noodles, which are great for shipping quilts rolled–lightweight, soft, cheap if they are lost.  The blue thing on the far left is a long-skinny bag I made from canvas to carry my make-shift PVC-pipe quilt display stand (too heavy for air travel, but was cheap and works great for anywhere I drive to teach or lecture).

On the right you can see two storage boxes; there are two even larger ones in back.  I bought these for about $15-18 each (ouch!) at Target.  The largest boxes (in the back, not visible) are 42 inches long on the inside, meaning that some of my quilts that need to be carefully folded and not rolled (the Bijagos Warrior quilt, for example, is padded and thick, so doesn’t roll well, and the Autumn on the Village Green has cut copper leaves on it!) can fit inside with only horizontal folds.

My teaching samples are on the small side–26 wide or narrower.  I made several carrying gizzies (I’ll do a post on them some day….) and roll my class samples on them.  They are all in one box for easy access when packing to teach.  Finally, small quilts like my journal quilts (both the smaller 8 1/2 x 11 inch ones and the larger 17 x 22 inch ones) also fit inside these boxes.  I asked the conservators and textile specialists on the quiltart list, and the consensus was that as long as the actual quilt doesn’t touch the plastic…line with acid-free tissue or cloth…and you open the boxes periodically to refresh the air… that it is fine to store in boxes (which will also protect them from smoke damage should there be a smoke incident).  And when the bedskirt is down (not tucked up under the duvet), I don’t see the stuff!

Some day I’ll have my dream studio with a massive wall-long closet.  The doors will be design walls, I’ll have storage rods on the back for the quilts, and all sorts of cool things. And I’m going to make laminated tags using business card software with a picture of each quilt to replace the safety-pinned post-it note with the roll contents.  In the meantime this works quite well for me.  I’ve been under the weather (number one son brought home evil germs and shared…), and yesterday I luxuriated in lolling on the bed in my sunny studio with a book…for about 20 minutes. Sigh.  It was nice while it lasted.  Then I got to play mom-taxi.  Several times.