Keeping quilt/textile organizations alive 03-16-13

Here is a commentary from Luana Rubin of eQuilter that I copied from their e-mail ad today. I don't know that it settles anything in my mind about supporting SJCMoQandT, but it is food for thought. I was a contributor to the Tentmakers of Cairo film funding project and regularly support other textile and quilt organizations. I definitely don't have eighty grand to rescue SJCMoQandT, but I will make a donation and encourage others to do so. As Luana says, "..even $5 helps." Deciding which organization to help with the $5 is a hard decision. My involvement with Visions Art Museum: Contemporary Quilts and Textiles is well known and I encourage others to support this outstanding venue for the quilts being made today. www.visionsartmuseum.org They are holding their own, but it takes a lot of strategic planning and penny pinching. If you hold dear the place of quilts and quiltmaking in your life, give a little, or a lot, to help worthy organizations over this yawning funding gap.

Del Thomas, Placentia, CA

Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection

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From eQuilter e-mail ad:

Lately I've been working with board members of various organizations, brainstorming how to raise funds so they can upgrade equipment, attract new members, and thrive without constant financial stress.

As I mentioned last week, I am working with SAQA and Andover Fabrics on a fundraising design project.

I accepted an invitation a few months ago to sit on the development committee of the Boulder Philharmonic, and it has been interesting to look at the fundraising topic from another angle.

Recently crowd-funding has been a popular and usually successful way to raise funds for projects, such as the recent (successful!) fundraiser for the Tentmakers of Cairo documentary.

Yesterday Karey Bresenhan posted a very humble plea for support to raise $ on Indiegogo for the Texas Quilt Museum to buy a new projector system so they can host programs at the Museum. (see my blog for this post) A smart investment for TQM!

Just this morning I received a enewsletter from the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, that they are in need of emergency funds. I hope they will get a crowd-funding page up soon so we can all pitch in whatever amount is possible!

I really respect and admire those who sit on these boards, and who try to figure out how the heck to raise money to keep these organizations afloat. Raising membership fees or ticket prices is not always the answer - if you lose members because of the higher fees, then you are right back in the same hole.So I just wanted to salute those who are working so hard behind the scenes, (as volunteers mostly!) to keep all the museums, non-profits, quilt exhibits, conferences, and other events in the black - i.e. with balanced budgets. It is not only our lawmakers who struggle with this issue!

Our Wonderful World of Quilting is a microcosm, and our leaders are privately wrestling with the same budget issues that the politicians are wrestling with publicly in the Macrocosm.

If you have a moment to visit one of those crowd-funding pages, remember that even $5 helps, if 1000 people each give $5 or whatever they can afford. These organizations are incredibly rich sources of creative inspiration and technical design information for all of us, so your $5, $10, $50 or more will give you a rich return on your investment. I am going to go make a donation right now!

Tuesday night I will be writing to you from a textile show in Las Vegas.

sharing your Passion for Fabric...
Luana and Paul [Rubin - of eQuilter]

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And a picture as a reward (or punishment) for reading this far.  Del


"Four Dwellings" Del Thomas  2005  24“ Sq.   Machine pieced and quilted.  Cotton fabrics.

Friday Feet 03-15-13

Even maturing ladies like good looking shoes.  I might try a pair like this.

Wordless Wednesday 03-13-13

 

"Summer Garden #2" 03-12-13

I FINALLY finished the Monthly Mini for Surside Quilters Guild - early this morning!  When I was working on it yesterday morning, my back-up Pfaff wouldn't turn on.  The switch is just stuck, or broken or... whatever.  So, I uncovered the Juki that I bought to use for FMQ, but I haven't used it for several years.  After a light cleaning and a drop of oil I read the instruction book - it had been so long I couldn't remember how to thread it!  It does sew beautifully, a nice even stitch, but it only goes forward and backward.  I had to revise my plan to satin stitch the two side edges, but forward and back were adequate for everything else.  I took the quilt to the meeting this morning and hung it up.  Then I realized I had not photographed it, nor had I done a final measurement.  I hope it is straighter than the images below indicate - they were taken with the camera above my head since the quilts are hung high.  The color is a bit off also.  Maybe Mary Crawford, who had the winning ticket, will bring it back someday so I can do better photography.



"Summer Garden #2" Del Thomas 2013  Approx 18" x 12"
Cotton fabric and batting.  Fused, machine pieced, raw edge applique, machine quilted.
Owned by Mary Crawford, San Juan Capistrano, CA
 

The flowers are cut whole from yardage, they are basically just one piece - however, I slipped in a petal in a few places because of the overlap of the print.   In this picture I notice that I missed the outlining stitch on some of the holes on the left leaf.  Guess I'll have to borrow it back from Mary!
 

 
There is always a bird on the quilts I make and this one is one the label.  But I fused the label too close to the bottom and the facing covered up this guy's feet.  So, after the facing was done I drew them again over the facing.  Something I might do on purpose sometime in the future.
 

I like to use colorful backings on my quilts.  This one isn't as outrageous as some, but it is bright!  Sometimes I match the print in the sleeve, but I just ran out of time on this one.  Why, oh why, do I leave things to the last minute?   

I like this quilt, but I think it would have been a better design if I had allowed more background space around it.  Especially at the top of the flowers and the sides.  Has it started my creativity motor?  I'm not sure yet - I hope so.

Sorry, no browsing this week.

I have been so busy with my class at Empty Spools Seminars and canoodling with my fellow students and friends I have made at Asilomar over the past 22 years that I have not been able to browse.  Check next Monday. 


Fence along the highway at Asilomar State Beach  03-05-13

"Playing With a Full Deck" 03-10-13

I was in San Diego this weekend for the Saturday evening opening reception for four new exhibits at Visions Art Museum and, this morning, a fascinating Power Point presentation by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry (she remarried in January).  The four exhibits that are showing from March 1 through May 19th : "Playing with a Full Deck" is in the Del Thomas Gallery, nine quilts from Pacific Art Quilters are in the Valya Gallery, and the alcove has two sets of 12X12 challenge quilts:  "Children's Books" are from Canyon Quilters and "Fortune Telling" from the Visions members.  The quilts from Pacific Art Quilters and the 12X12 challenge quilts are all for sale - ask at the desk for prices. 

I am amazed at how well the quilts have stood up for almost twenty years since the exhibit was first shown in 1995 at the Renwick Gallery in DC - not only the physical quilts which look brand new, but the designs and the techniques used are still current today.  After the showing at the Renwick the quilts toured the country under the auspices of the Smithsonian for four years.  I saw them first at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles (at a former location).  Subsequently the collection was purchased by Nancy and Warren Brakensiek, contemporary quilt collectors from Albuquerque, NM.    Now they have donated the 54 quilts, establishing a permanent collection for the
Visions Art Museum. 


This is the book that was printed in 1994 to accompany the exhibit as it traveled.  It includes images of all the quilts and a short essay about each of the quiltmakers, their techniques and the thoughts that went into their quilt designs.  I find it interesting that so many of the techniques used in these quilts are being "discovered" by the emerging art quilters of today.   To mention only one:  Jean Ray Laury used felt to make her Eight of Spades.  All those years ago she had already discovered the practicality of sewing with felt that doesn't require turned edges and absorbs rather than reflects light, thus providing a rich texture to the finished piece.  Today wool applique is very popular with quiltmakers and the material has become widely available in quilt shops.

I hope you will be able to made a trip to Visions Art Museum while "Full Deck" is there.  You can buy a fresh new copy of the book from the Museum, but it is also available second hand on Amazon.

Asilomar/Empty Spools Day 6 03-06-13

It was 7am on the last day of class - time for the pounding to begin! Also the
beep-beep-beep of the Bobcat - seen here dumping a load of gravel for a walkway.  This will improve the campus greatly and I think they are keeping things compatible with the natural atmosphere of the original complex. 

 

 
Hopefully no more slippery or uneven stairs.  This is beside Pirates Den.  There are also new signs on each building and directional maps that have motion detectors and light up when it is too dark to see by natural light. 

These are the bricks they are using - they have little slits to allow the water to drain away, no puddles after the rain.   The Palos Verde stones on the "verandas" around Merrill Hall have been re-laid, so the puddles are not as bad as they were before, but they don't drain off the rain completely.

These are the final pictures of the projects in the Rayna Gilman class.  Everyone works at their own pace and some have more experience with improvisational piecing, and, of course, we all have our unique vision.  There were some very talented ladies in this class.
 

Annette Friedlein  She took the pictures in Africa and used them as inspiration for this colorful piece.
 

Doreen Zaki
 

Teri Pohl
 

Gail Wrigley
 

Bette Ward  Inspired by a photograph, Bette has cut up orphan blocks to make the pears.
 

Eloise Cotugno  Kite flying in a colorful city.
 

Donna Lee Zimmerman
 

Donna Lee Zimmerman -  Windows on windows on windows......
 

Pippa Moore - see the beginnings of this piece on my post for the 3rd day of class.
 

Another work by Pippa Moore  Trees revealed by lifting fog.
 

Pam Caywood
 

Pam Caywood
 

Lisa Brothman
 

Lisa Brothman - Lisa has a great idea:  she takes the photo on the right(of a poppy growing against a brick wall)  to every class and interprets it in the style she is learning in the class.
 

Dinner at the Red House.  One of our party had a Caesar Salad and she had samples of the salmon and shrimp from her dining partners.
 

The other three of us had the seafood special - skewered salmon and shrimp with a fabulous sauce and fresh green beans.  We also shared a yummy slice of orange cake with fresh berries and whipped cream.  However, I got so excited about eating it I didn't take a picture!