I don’t know if you experiment with various techniques - you know, all the forbidden things the Quilt Police will come and get you for - painting fabric, using soft edge appliqué (or slap-dash appliqué, as I call it), couching over raw edges, fusing “cheater fabrics,” using “forbidden” fabrics that are not 100% cotton - like metallic crinkled silk and opalescent organdie, and woven copper, and fused Angelina fibers and Tintzl and ExpandaPrint and vanishing muslin and drying sheets and Lutradur and Spray web and foil and – need I go on? (I HOPE that there are a few of you out there who know what these things are, for all of these things are such FUN!) The problem is, after one has worked for a month or so and finished a quilt made with all of these newly learned techniques and marvelous fibers, one is left with the unanswerable question: Is This ART, or is it just Plain Tacky?
The only solution, of course, is to show it and see what reaction you get. If the Judges’ sole comment (this happened to a friend of mine) was “Is this a quilt?,” you MAY have gone too far; but maybe not. The quilt(?) in question was absolutely wonderful, in my opinion - a Tuscan vineyard, with an airbrushed sky, a castle in suitably misty overtones, a vineyard of grapes done in heavy threadwork, with tiny grapes hanging down, grape leaves painted and airbrushed stamped and heat gunned to be twisted and insect eaten - MARVELLOUS, in my opinion. But is it a quilt (it was framed, it was rigid, it had no actual quilting through all of the layers)? Is it ART? Or is it just plain tacky?
Where do we draw the line, these days? I love to play with everything that comes my way - fabric paint, double stick fusible web, fabric crayons, melting painted cellophane, Bonding Agent 007 - but in the back of my mind, I still hear old quilter Maisie saying “Those stitches are too big. What does she think she’s getting away with, PAINTING on fabric? Who ever heard of FUSING fabric? Stitching was good enough for ME!” Don’t you hear them too, the old voices, faint but persistent?
Sure you do. Ever try to put a plaid on the skew? Ever try to deliberately not make your corners meet? Ever have one corner not meet and be tempted to leave it that way? Ever try to leave your points blunted? Ever try to fudge in a background piece that doesn’t quite match? Try it. You’ll hear them - the old ones. You’ll hear them say “I just KNEW she’d never be a quilter.” “She thinks she’s getting away with it, but I know where all the bodies are buried.” Don’t fool yourself. You hear them, the old ones.
But you, you’re now. You’re here. You know the old rules don’t always apply, and there is always room for growth, for change, for development. Sure you know it - but no matter what you do, unless you take the chance and try it - sew on those silk flowers, paint that sky, fuse those details, and then send that quilt out to try itself in the world, you’ll never really have the answer to that age old question: “Is it ART, or is it just plain tacky?”
Inquiring minds want to know.
The only solution, of course, is to show it and see what reaction you get. If the Judges’ sole comment (this happened to a friend of mine) was “Is this a quilt?,” you MAY have gone too far; but maybe not. The quilt(?) in question was absolutely wonderful, in my opinion - a Tuscan vineyard, with an airbrushed sky, a castle in suitably misty overtones, a vineyard of grapes done in heavy threadwork, with tiny grapes hanging down, grape leaves painted and airbrushed stamped and heat gunned to be twisted and insect eaten - MARVELLOUS, in my opinion. But is it a quilt (it was framed, it was rigid, it had no actual quilting through all of the layers)? Is it ART? Or is it just plain tacky?
Where do we draw the line, these days? I love to play with everything that comes my way - fabric paint, double stick fusible web, fabric crayons, melting painted cellophane, Bonding Agent 007 - but in the back of my mind, I still hear old quilter Maisie saying “Those stitches are too big. What does she think she’s getting away with, PAINTING on fabric? Who ever heard of FUSING fabric? Stitching was good enough for ME!” Don’t you hear them too, the old voices, faint but persistent?
Sure you do. Ever try to put a plaid on the skew? Ever try to deliberately not make your corners meet? Ever have one corner not meet and be tempted to leave it that way? Ever try to leave your points blunted? Ever try to fudge in a background piece that doesn’t quite match? Try it. You’ll hear them - the old ones. You’ll hear them say “I just KNEW she’d never be a quilter.” “She thinks she’s getting away with it, but I know where all the bodies are buried.” Don’t fool yourself. You hear them, the old ones.
But you, you’re now. You’re here. You know the old rules don’t always apply, and there is always room for growth, for change, for development. Sure you know it - but no matter what you do, unless you take the chance and try it - sew on those silk flowers, paint that sky, fuse those details, and then send that quilt out to try itself in the world, you’ll never really have the answer to that age old question: “Is it ART, or is it just plain tacky?”
Inquiring minds want to know.
