Quilting Arts Blog

2009 Quilting Arts Calendar Finalists

Okay, dear blog readers, it’s that time of year again to announce our Quilting Arts Calendar finalists. (I know it seems a little early to be thinking about 2009, but welcome to my world!)

With this year’s theme, “Celebrating Home,” we received 243 entries from around the globe, and many of these entries were very colorful and extremely personal. We loved admiring all of the entries and reading your stories of home, hearth, and childhood. And there were a number of them that had us laughing (we got a fair amount of cute pets at home this year). We thank everyone so much for participating, and hope—even if you are not a finalist—that you enjoyed the process and will display your quilt proudly.

People may wonder how in the world we are able to winnow the lot to a group of finalists. There are a few things the team considers when choosing the quilts:
1. Innovation and creative interpretation of the calendar theme we give you.
2. Mastery of art and design principles, use of surface design, embellishment, color, and quilting techniques.
3. As we are choosing the finalists, we are mindful of how many we have selected that correlate with a certain time of year. (For instance, we don’t want to have 20 entries depicting The Day of the Dead or Flag Day on our hands.)
4. And this is just as important as the above three: Is this quilt something that someone can stare at for an entire month?

One of the reasons I love our reader challenges is I discover new talent. There have been a number of entries from past years that may not have been a good fit for our calendar, but I have filed away for my own reference to follow up for articles and to check artists’ websites and blogs to see what else they are up to.

We ask that the following artists ship their quilt(s) to our offices so they arrive on or by Monday May 5,  2008. We strongly advise that you ship your work via FedEx or UPS to our street address, rather than USPS to our post office address. If you choose to ship via USPS, be sure to send with tracking so you can track your package, and please note they do not deliver to our street address. The address label on the box must have our post office box number—PO Box 685—on the package.

By sending your quilt(s) to us you agree per the challenge entry rules that we may hold onto your quilt(s) through December 31, 2009. (We usually send them back much earlier but we like the right to hold onto them so they can travel with us to national shows.)

Please ship your quilt(s) to:

Quilting Arts
ATTN: 2009 Calendar Contest
23 Gleasondale Rd
PO Box 685 (if using USPS)
Stow, MA
01775

The 2009 Calendar finalists are:

Linda Aavedal
Natalya Aikens (both quilts)
Judy Alexander
Christine Alexiou
Polly Bean (“Home: Nest is Best!”)
Marianne Bettinger
Donna Clauer
Susan Conaway
Michelle Dobrin (both quilts)
Janet Davis
Cait Gordon
Tone Haugen-Cogburn
Linda Johnson
Susan B. Knapp (“Home Planet”)
Marisa Landa-Love
Susan Mayfield
Sylvia Naylor (both quilts)
Deb Nichol
Wen Redmond (both quilts)
Linda Weinstein

Congratulations!

Recap of International Quilt Festival/Chicago

International Quilt Festival/Chicago was such a blast––a heartfelt thanks to everyone who visited and participated in Make It University!(TM) with Cloth Paper Scissors. The area buzzed with energy, creativity, and laughs the entire weekend, thanks to all of the artists who donated their time in Open Studios, Workshop teachers, and the vendors.

I've been running at half-speed since we got back, humoring my co-workers as I waddle around the office in my UGG slippers, and wrapped in a huge, robe-sized sweater. A couple more nights of sleep and I'll be back to my energetic, effervescent self. In the meantime, some pictures for you...

Debbi Crane (right) and I in the Workshop area. Debbi is not only a talented and witty artist but she's got that rock star glam about her. Can't you see her in studded leather pants belting out "Magic Man?"  Debbi, you missed your calling...

Belinda Spiwak tirelessly worked in Open Studios all three days, encouraging attendees to play with  supplies and to interact with her artwork. She also displayed some amazing mixed-media quilts embellished with recycled objects. Look for her in an upcoming issue of Quilting Arts.

Beryl Taylor in Open Studios dazzled attendees with her mixed-media needle felting. It's not to be believed what that woman will put her Babylock Embellisher through. You can also see Lynn Krawczyk in the back as she shares her quilts with found objects. (A special thanks to Lynn for spending extra time in Open Studios!)

Leilani Pierson smiling for the camera had plenty of art on hand to share. She also got rave reviews for her Workshop.

Some of Leilani's Story Boxes. (You may recognize them from a past issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.)

Beryl Taylor, Bernie Berlin, and Asst. Editor Barbara Delaney pose for the camera. A big thanks to Barbara for doing such a superb job in coordinating the artists for Open Studios!

Here's Bernie's table of a whole lotta' stuff. I think this might be my favorite picture. Doesn't it make you want to reach into the photo, get really messy, and play?

The colorful Kelli Perkins--librarian by day, renegade artist by night-- delighted attendees with all of her mixed media.

Kelli cleverly touts her cover girl status by turning her CPS moment  into a beaded purse. Nice going, Kelli!



Virginia Spiegel, artist and fundraiser extraodinaire (far right) brought her sister Nancy and mother to the show. There's no family resemblance, is there. No, none at all...



On Saturday we taped several segments for Quilting Arts TV in the Open Studios section. Here the camera crew and producer Kathie Stull are getting the set ready.

I've spiffed myself up a bit and donned a respectable jacket for our guests. Here's Judy Coates Perez as she demonstrates a beautiful project with stitched metal. Be sure to check out her blog because she has a ton of photos!

Laura Wasilowski demonstrated fusing on the bias. If you can't tell from this photo, she is one of the funniest, bubbliest people around. For a good time, call Laura. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Kelli Perkins was the first guest of the day. Poor thing, I told her beforehand, "I've had no coffee and I'm a little rusty at this." Thankfully she laughed and she absolutely carried the segment. Kelli was a superb and articulate guest.

I had the exciting opportunity of interviewing International Quilt Festival Director, Karey Bresenhan (also author of Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project). For years I've admired Karey for being such a champion for the quilting industry, and also for her wit, strength, and forthrightness. In her QA TV segment she shares her love for one of her babies, the Journal Quilt Project. (Thanks, Karey!)

Oh yes, forgot to mention that we, too, had a booth at Make It University. Here's Judy again, posing with our latest three publications. (She's currently cover girl for two of them.)

And as promised to co-worker, Geri Stevens, here I am with the infamous Flat Stanley. This particular Flat Stanley belongs to Olivia Beauchain, a second grader from Tynes Elementary School in Florida. (All of us at Quilting Arts are huge fans of Flat Stanley!)

Von Biggs shares his  beautiful piece of complex cloth that resulted from an online round robin. What a great idea, don't you think? The fabric is gorgeous. He's lucky I didn't have a pair of scissors on me.

Meet 16-year-old Kayla Fujimoto who had a quilt in our "True Colors" mixed media exhibit. This young artist is someone I'm going to keep my eye on.

Okay, it's Saturday night and time to party. Here's Tracy Stillwell of ArtGirlz posing for the camera. I hosted our "Surviving the Runway" event and without divulging too many details as we'll be doing an adapted version in Long Beach, we indeed, went back to the 70s...

And rocked it.

I'll close this entry by thanking everyone--the folks of Quilts, Inc., all of the artists in Open Studios, the vendors, the attendees, and the Workshop teachers--for making this such a magical event. If you want to come to Long Beach, we'd love to see you! Save the date--July 25-27-- and check the Quilts Inc. web site for more details on the show. If you're an artist that's published with us and want to participate in Open Studios, give a shout to Barbara Delaney as soon as possible. In a few weeks we'll begin posting our plans and workshop schedule for Make It University!(TM).

Lastly, have a look at the YouTube video below. That's two of our editors, Barbara Delaney and Helen Gregory getting ready for my "Surviving the Runway" luncheon. (If you listen closely you can hear Barbara give a "Whoop!") They didn't know I had the camera rolling, and let's just say maybe they should stick to editing! Enjoy.