This was going to be a link on the Newsletter, but it's simply too good to not post in it's entirety here.

This is an article by Sew, Mama, Sew!, one of my very favorite quilting blogs. The original controversy over the Modern vs. Traditional quilting debate started with "The Dumbing Down of Quilting Parts 1-3 HERE, HERE and HERE by Sandi at Piecemeal Quilts and it definitely struck a chord with people, myself included.
I have a pretty strong opinion about this whole thing, and I'll keep my big mouth shut, save for that I think both sides make very valid points. Please do go to Sew, Mama, Sew! and to Piecemeal Quilts and have a look around their blogs. And if you choose to comment, please be kind to both!

This is Sew Mama Sew's response to Sandi's articles. I really like how she handled it, and I think she has some good things to say. I certainly don't think she's the be-all-to-end all as Sandi puts it, but I think her messages are good.

Weighing in on the Great Quilting Debate: Three Guiding Principles

I admit, I’m often oblivious to gossip. I follow as many blogs as I possible can. I tweet and do Facebook. Yet sometimes I miss things that are kind of obvious. I saw a firestorm of debate in the quilting community, but it wasn’t until recently that I traced the controversy to a mid-March blog post and realized that Sew,Mama,Sew! ignited the spark. Yowza!

My first job in social media.

I don’t want to go into it too much and try to address all the arguments and points of view (I can’t even begin to understand them all.) I don’t think that people should have to be nice and supportive and kind all the time and I do think there should be room for debate in the sewing community. But feelings have been hurt, some people are angry and I’m sure more than a few people feel gun-shy about what to say, what to share and what to post on their blogs. Because what we said started this debate, I feel a responsibility to chime in with my two cents. I thought I’d try to explain three principles in which I strongly believe.

One of my early quilts.

Principle 1: Sewing should be fun!
This ain’t Little House on the Prairie and none of us are Laura Ingalls. We don’t have to sew if we don’t want to. We can sew whatever we want as many times as we want in whatever fabric we want and we should be able to write about it, photograph it and talk about it without getting any flack. And if there are parts of sewing that aren’t fun, we don’t have to do it. Some people like piecing a quilt but hate the actual quilting so they send it off to someone else. Some people love  sewing, but are perfectly happy to let someone else pick out the fabric so they buy a kit. Some people don’t want to do any math or cutting, so they buy precuts. I think you should do whatever floats your boat. Me, I’m never tracing another pattern again. I do solemnly swear I will never judge you for NOT doing the parts of sewing that aren’t fun to you. (Go ahead, raise your hand and pledge with me.)

Taking the Sew-What-You-Want pledge while Mel Brooks looks on.

Principle 2: Learning requires a certain level of discomfort.
This is something one of my graduate school professors used to say and as a mother I think about it all the time. Learning to ride a bike is scary. Learning a new language is embarrassing and exhausting. Learning  guitar hurts! Learning Calculus makes you want to bang your head on a desk (OK, maybe that was just me.) As an educator I had to keep this in mind every day. When people are learning, they’re often not happy about it because they’re uncomfortable, but a tolerance for discomfort is required if you want to learn or master anything. (Which doesn’t in any way mean that it can’t also be fun.) The wonderful thing is that when you challenge yourself it leads to growth and mastery, which most people find deeply satisfying, which is why we keep doing it.

My first group of happy students.

The idea that learning and growth can be uncomfortable at times is where some of the recently frustrated and outspoken quilting bloggers and I can come together. One of the more positive and underlying messages of many of the controversial quilting posts is this:
STRETCH!
Stretch your skills.
Stretch your repertoire.
Stretch your definition of beautiful.
Leave your comfort zone and see where it takes you.
One thing I’ve been thinking a lot about lately (even before all of this started) is how Sew,Mama,Sew! needs to grow with our readers. We have always tried our best to make sewing fun and approachable to as many people as possible. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of encouraging and inspiring and involving people in the craft of sewing. But lately I’ve decided that we don’t really do enough to help people develop their skills. To stretch, grow and learn. We’re making it fun, but we’re not really making it challenging, so we’re going to try to do better. If (heavy emphasis on IF, because we still strongly believe in Priciple 1) you want to take your sewing skills to the next level, we’re going to do our best to offer you ideas, advice, inspiration and resources.

My sewing circle, aka The Sweet Hot Yams.

Principle 3: Sometimes people deserve a do-over.
I try to remember to practice this with my family as much as possible. People feel passionate about things and they get riled up. They say things that maybe they would phrase differently if they’d given themselves a little more time to work it out.  Or maybe they hadn’t anticipated the effect their words would have on others. Sometimes people deserve a chance to say what they mean in a different way.
And so, today I’m very happy to bring you an excellent post by Sandi Walton of Piecemeal Quilts. (We’ll call it the first in a series of Stretch Your Skills posts.) Sandi is an accomplished and passionate quilter. Sandi believes in STRETCH so she and her friend Jeanne of Grey Cat Quilts put their convictions into action and developed a collection of blog posts called the Skill Builder Series. So far they’ve covered 1/4″ seams, quilting tools, half square triangles and more. If you’re a beginning or intermediate quilter and you’re interested in improving your skills, I encourage you to check them out. Today Sandi taks about the importance of quilting in her life and offers some advice on learning foundational skills for piecing traditional blocks.
(OK, those photos aren’t really me. Images are in the public domain via The Library of Congress.)

Men and Quilting

It really does bother me that when I Googled "Men in the Quilting Tradition," the first thing that popped up was "Quiling for the Men in your Life."

What I was really looking for was a blog I saw months ago, about a man who started quilting and started documenting his experience as a male quilter. I really enjoyed it, and I wish I had bookmarked it.

We need to start a movement to get these fellas quilting. I say that only half jokingly. Yes, quilting is a largely gender defined art...one of the handful swung in favor of women...but it doesn't have to be. Guys, you too can quilt, and the ones that do are damn good at it.

My absolute favorite quilter (aside from my momma, of course, because her designs are phenomenal...seriously) is a man - local quilter Anton Haas Jr.. His quilts are gorgeous and just so, so precise. He really is a gifted artist.

So when you have a minute, look up "Male Quilters" on Google. There are a few out there and they are blogging like madman.

Quilt Police! Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna when they come for you?

Okay, y'all who know me personally know I am a rant-o-holic... I have a soapbox and I'm not afraid to use it! As my brother so delicately said (as has been joked about ever since...) when I get annoyed it's "screech first, ask questions later." I don't claim to be a patient person 100% of the time :D  So what am I standing on my soapbox and screeching about this time?

The dang Quilt Police. Or, the people who think they are. Ask them; they'll tell you!

So what brought this on? Well, first of all, I was watching my DVR-ed episode of Fon's & Porter's Love of Quilting and I've more or less decided I am not the biggest fan of Miss Marianne Fons. Her information is all right, I use some of her methods and some I don't. But I find her all kinds of snooty, at least as she hosts the show. Her way is the best way. Period. Tonight she was particularly eye-roll inducing so it got me to thinking about uppity "my way is the only way" kinds of quilters. For the love of Pete, if you fall under this category...  r  e  l  a  x. There are other ways.

But then I was bouncing around the internet looking for links to share on the newsletter for the shop and I stumbled across this rather irritating little nugget on another quilter's blog, in an article in which she discussed her opinions of a local quilt show she attended:

"I have to say, a lot of the art quilts just were not doing it for me this year.  This is a little internal war I have with myself whenever I go to a quilt show.  On the one hand, I am so glad that nontraditional techniques have been embraced by the quilting establishment.  I’ve read about the controversy when Carol Bryer Fallert won at Houston with a — gasp! clutch pearls! — machine quilted quilt in 1989.  (Perhaps I should put “quilt” in quotation marks, as every right-minded member of the Quilt Police knows that only hand-quilted quilts deserve to be called quilts.  Sniff!)  Ahem.  Anyway.  I’m glad that those of us who machine quilt, use fusible web or Paintstiks, etc. can all play in the sandbox too.  Which is why I get uncomfortable when I find myself standing in front of a quilt at a show and thinking, “That’s not really a quilt.”  I don’t want to be a part of the Biddy Brigade, but at the same time, I don’t want to be so open-minded that my brain falls out." http://sarahlovesfabric.com/tag/quilt-police/

So. Someone has acknowledged the big, rude elephant in the room. Number one, how exactly does finishing methodology determine what contitutes a quilt? Artistic technique changes over time and norms evolve. Granted, this is difficult to accept in a lot of ways for all generations involved - there's the way it was being confronted by the way it is, there's the nostalgia and stereotype existing in contrast with the reality. I get it. Heck, I studied that in depth (that was my thesis in Anthropology for goodness sake!). But for people to discredit the art and deny a quilt the title of Quilt because it wasn't done by hand is positively ludicrous. It goes back to the shift in purpose and the evolution of the art - if a craft is to survive it cannot remain static; new method come in as others fade away or simply remain (the latter being the case with handquilting...I have a blog entry about handquilting even).

Her mention of Quilt Police got me to thinking about Quilt Police in general. Every quilter knows a Quilting Police Officer. This person is usually undercover, but they may be in uniform:

Maybe something like this?

Or this? The Official Quilt Police Website. They have their own T-Shirts and ballcaps! Egad.

But there are the folks that, on a consistent basis, are the ones to find and point out a fault in what you're making. They're the ones to tell you you're doing it wrong on the basis that you're not doing it their way, not because you're actually doing it wrong. They're quit to criticize, and on the flip side don't take it well if someone in turn points out a mistake they made. These are the people who discourage personal preference and improvisation because "everyone knows" that there should be 20 stitches per inch on bindings (which should all be cut to 2.5") or the pattern said "this piece shall be blue."

I've only been at this in seriousness for 2 years, and I consider myself a pretty confident beginner, but jeezy chreezy! I have some pretty strong perfectionist tendencies (ask mom...I can be meticulous...which is putting it nicely lol) but if that's how quilting is supposed to be, then cuff me, take me to Quilter's Prison, lock me up and throw away the key because I think that blows! 

We're all ready our own worst critics; we don't need another person assessing our artwork or our skills and telling us it's crap. It happens way too often; ask your quilter friends or read the blogs about the dark side of the Quilt Police in the blogosphere - I think everyone has (or will have) an unpleasant encounter with an unruly Quilt Police Officer. So how do you handle it? Well, I'm not the best person to ask, honestly. I'm a little too quick tempered to handle it with grace no matter how bad I'd like to. Usually I just say, a little sharply that "Yeah well, that's how I prefer to do it/Yeah well, I'm happy with how it turned out/Yeah well, I like these colors a lot, but I guess it's an acquired taste." Probably the better why to handle it is to smile nice and big and just let them know that the beauty of quilting is that every quilter has their own unique eye and taste in color and thank God there aren't any quilt police because there's just no "right" way :D

How do we stop Quilt Police? We don't! That behavior is part of any art - the gallery snobs, the cinematic elitists, the comedy purists - the line is drawn where criticism ceases to be kind, contructive and supportive and and begins to be elitist, tactless and know-it-allish. I know I find myself letting their negativity color my view of my work, and I know others do too. No one likes to be told their work or methodology is mediocre or sub-par, especially if it's something they're happily sharing at a quilt show, like the gal was talking about in the blog quote above. But that's where we have to take it upon ourselves to remember that the beauty of quilting is that everyone has a different vision and these Quilt Police hold no sway in the satisfaction and pride we have and take in our own work. We all have our Quilt Police moments. Not everyone will like everything you, me, our friends, professional designers make and that's okay...the key is being respectful of the fact that someone put love and effort into their work and that is reason alone to be tactful and just admire the meaning behind the piece for the person who made it even if you think it's bum-ugly :-)