Greetings to Linda, Andrea, Petra, Carolyn, Patti, and Jane!
Rita, Judy, and I met this morning and we have now set up our group and the guidelines. First the group--our names and where we live!
Alice Baird--Waco, TX
Patti Brooks-Temple, TX
Patti Brooks-Temple, TX
Judy Steward--Hewitt, TX
Rita Schormann--China Spring, TX (Hewitt and China Spring are suburban communities adjacent to Waco)
Carolyn Henson--Dallas, TX
Linda Hicks--Boston, MS
Andrea Willey--Boston, MS
Petra Sharp--Scotland
Jane McTavish--Scotland
As we get to know one another through our quilts and the comments about them, you'll learn more about each of us. We range from being long-time quilters to novices, to those with formal art training to, again, true beginners. I would imagine that our ages range from being quite young (from my vantage point!) to being of grandmotherly age. All of us, though, share a love of quilting and a keen desire to hone our skills at art quilting. Some of us will continue to keep one foot in the door of traditional quilting, while perhaps others have turned their backs on that and focus now solely on art quilts. All this we'll learn as our group gets underway.
Here are the guidelines that Judy, Rita, and I came up with:
1. The quilts will be 12"x12" finished.
2. They will be "quilts" in the sense of being sandwiched with top, batting, and backing.
3. The quilt's edges will be finished, but the sky's the limit here. You can bind them conventionally, turn the backing to the front, zig zag or otherwise decoratively stitch the edges, or even be as "far out" as one of the original 12x12ers were and bind with flexible metal! Whatever you choose is fine, just so that the edges aren't left raw.
Oh, and the quilts will be truly "quilted"--but again, how and how much is up to you! Some of us will machine quilt, some will hand-quilt, some will do a combination. Anything goes here as well! Some may choose to add embellishments, others may not ever do this. All of this is up to the individual quilter!
Oh, and the quilts will be truly "quilted"--but again, how and how much is up to you! Some of us will machine quilt, some will hand-quilt, some will do a combination. Anything goes here as well! Some may choose to add embellishments, others may not ever do this. All of this is up to the individual quilter!
4. The quilts will be based on themes, which might be either abstract or concrete, again as did the original 12x12 group.
5. We drew names for the order in which the themes will be chosen. (more about this later)
6. We will have two months to complete our small quilts after the theme is announced.
7. Quilts will be "due" on the 15th day of a month. Our first one will be "due" on September 15, 2011.
8. On the day we "reveal" our quilts (hopefully turning them in by posting on The Material Mavens blog), the quilter's whose turn it is to choose the theme will announce the theme.
9. This first time, the theme chooser will let all of us know by JULY 15, 2011, what our theme for the first quilt will be.
10. Here are the names we drew and who will be selecting the theme for which month's quilt:
(1) Carolyn chooses theme #1 on July 15, for the quilt due on Sept. 15, 2011.
(2) Linda chooses theme #2 on Sept. 15, 2011, for November, 2011's quilt.
(3) Jane chooses theme #3 on Nov. 15, 2011, for January, 2012's quilt.
(4) Judy chooses theme #4 on Jan. 15, 2012, for March, 2012's quilt.
(5) Rita chooses theme #5 on Mar. 15, 2012, for May, 2012's quilt.
(6) Patti chooses theme #6 on May 15, 2012, for July 2012's quilt.
(7) Andrea chooses theme #7 on July 15, 2012, for Sept. 2012's quilt.
(8) Alice chooses theme #8 for on Sept. 15, 2012, Nov. 2012's quilt.
(9) Petra chooses theme #9 on Nov. 15, 2012, for Jan 2013's quilt.
Judy, Rita, and I are all so excited about this new group we are a part of! I can hardly wait to hear what theme Carolyn comes up with!
As for our revealing our quilts and reporting on them--the most efficient way to do this long-distance is to blog about them. I have already set up our group's blog. In my first post, I explained how to join Google so that you can post on Blogger (a Google-based blog program), and then I outlined the steps you take for posting and for uploading photos of your quilt on the blog.
I walked Rita through the steps today during our meeting. Rita, Judy, Linda, and Andrea have already "joined" the blog as authors. I will be emailing each one of you, inviting you to join this group blog. When you receive the email, it will explain to you how to go to the blog and "accept" the invitation. Essential in doing the revealing in this manner is having a digital camera and knowing how to post photos! If anyone does not have a digital, perhaps you could print a photo, mail it to me along with the narrative which discusses the quilt, and I will post it for you. But you'd have to do this prior to the deadline, so that everyone can read about and see your quilt on the "due date"!
I have set the blog up so that anyone can comment. You just type your comment into the comment box, sign in with your Google account (if you've set that up), or sign in anonymously. To do that, just use the pulldown menu and click on anonymous. Please, all of you, try doing that and commenting so that I'll know that you got to the blog! If you do sign in anonymously, put your name in the comment box along with your comment!
