Quilting Arts Blog

Quilting Arts TV

I've been mum about something and it's just about killed me to have kept this secret for so long.

Coming the end of December a brand new quilting show called "Quilting Arts TV" and hosted by yours truly will join the PBS programming line-up. During the next few months, we'll be planning the set design, the content (and we have some arty ideas), obtaining sponsorships, and scheduling quilt artists and designers for the first series taping in September.

When we have more details, I'll be sure to post them.

Cool, huh? I, for one, am pretty gosh darn excited.

Okay, my heatgun-wielding, rotary-cutting lovelies, I have big news, but before I share, I want to tell a story:

Back in the day when I was in sixth grade, my art teacher plopped a pile of colored felt, a bag of needles, and skeins of DMC floss on the art table one afternoon. I picked up a needle with my monkey-bar-loving, blister-ridden hands and once I figured out how to thread it, proceeded to take those bits of colorful craft felt and floss and stitch a scene of ducks swimming in a pond. It was ... shall we say…the most abstracted little duck scene you'd ever scene: a whir of blues, browns, and greens with the occasional wonky, loose stitch placed haphazardly about. No one—not art teacher, not parent, not friend—knew what in the blazes it was supposed to be, but looking back, nothing my two hands had ever fashioned made me happier.

Becoming a professional needle artist, however, wasn't in The Grand Plan, so off I went to college on the east coast where I majored in English. (Hey, if I couldn't stitch a duck scene at least I could read all those Austen books where they featured duck scenes.) Then grad school to be a teacher (not of needle arts), and then—much to the shock of my family: One day I had the overwhelming urge to pick up the needle again.

And once I started to stitch, I just couldn't put the needle down. I quit school, quit teaching, took my money and set up a computer in my in-laws' sheep barn to put out a quilting magazine. I had no newsstand plans for it; I thought it would be a subscription-only magazine (but of exceptional quality, of course).

Then stores called asking what my wholesale terms were. (What in the heck were our wholesale terms?!) And my sister-in-law Sally (who had four young kids at the time) took pity on me and came over every afternoon to help me go to the post office and drop off boxes of issues.

And then my husband, who'd previously owned his own business, came on board as publisher.

And then we hired a couple of employees.

And then we thought we might need to move the business out of our house, so when a historic building downtown in need of renovations came on the market, we snapped it up.

And then we thought, "Hey! We have this fabulous old building…why not have a little retail store, too, and offer all the cool stuff we talk about in the magazines?"

And then we thought, "People! We get all this incredible mixed-media art for QUILTING ARTS, but some pieces aren't exactly quilts, so why don't we start a second magazine!?"

And then we thought—dream of all mother dreams—wouldn't it be fun to publish books!

And then we thought, "Hey! We love to stitch by the pool––needle in one hand, margarita in the other. Let's launch a stitching cruise!"

And then we thought, "We're not publishing enough! Let's go to a six-issue publication schedule! For both magazines! At the same time!"

And then and then and then…

Here we are on a beautiful (and eerily balmy) January afternoon and Quilting Arts LLC has taken another gigantic leap into the publishing frontier:

As of January 2, 2007, Quilting Arts LLC has joined the family at Interweave Press. Hopefully you know them––those talented, creative folks who publish FIBERARTS, PIECEWORK, BEADWORK, and INTERWEAVE KNITS among a host of other high quality publications and books. Both John and I are thrilled about aligning forces with such a passionate, innovative group of people.

The quality, the photography, design, etc. will all stay top-notch for both publications. In fact, in addition to both magazines going to a six-issue publishing schedule, we're looking forward to offering all of you even more ways to get the freshest, most cutting-edge, thought-provoking, and creative content.

John will remain as publisher for both QUILTING ARTS and CLOTH PAPER SCISSORS (and will be the Group Publisher for Interweave's Quilting and Paper division), and I get to do what I love: being editor-in-chief for both magazines, working closely with Interweave's book division, and having fun planning some special projects that are in the works. John, myself, all of our staff, and our offices, including our retail store, will remain in Stow, MA.

So there you have it. My news. Picture me overjoyed when I say:

We're so excited to be part of the Greatness of Interweave Press!

Above (left to right): John Bolton, Pokey Bolton, Clay Hall, and Marilyn Murphy

2007 Calendar, Teens Alone, and a Rare Raffle Opportunity

'Tis the season for giving, and have we got a special deal for you right now––buy a 2007 Quilting Arts Calendar and get a 2006 Calendar for free! And if that's not reason enough, here's another: Quilting Arts, LLC, donates $1 for every calendar sold each year to a non-profit organization that we feel does excellent work. For our 2007 calendar we chose Teens Alone, a community-based organization that helps homeless teenagers stay in their communities so they have a better shot at graduating high school. I met Lydia Kihm, the Director of Teens Alone two years ago when she visited the International Quilt Festival/Spring in Chicago. When Lydia walked through Mary Fisher's Abataka exhibit, like many viewers, she was moved to heavy tears. (This is a woman who cares deeply about the welfare of children.)

I recently had the chance to interview Lydia to find out more about Teens Alone.

What does Teens Alone do?
            Teens Alone has four counselors who provide free counseling to teens and parents in Minneapolis’s western suburbs. We also facilitate in-school and community groups. Last year we had 399 youth clients and 73 parents.
            Daunting issues that bring teens to us include: sadness over losing a girlfriend or boyfriend, divorce and the challenges of blended families, pregnancy worries, mental health issues, self-mutilation, trouble with the law, problems at school, drug and alcohol experimentation, and chemical dependency
            A growing concern is that almost 100 of the teens we worked with were on the verge of, or had already lost stable housing. (I doubt that our geographical area is much different from other communities). There are no local housing options for teens…they have to go into Minneapolis. Most of them refuse by saying, “I’ve lost my home. All I have is school and my job and now you want me to give that up, too?”
            Studies show that youth who remain in their home community are less likely to drop out of school, so we are committed to lead the community into finding local options to support these kids to stay in school.

How difficult is it to get funding?
            The economy collapsed after September 11, 2001. Businesses felt the impact first. Non profits didn’t feel the effects until 2003. Since then, so many funding streams have dried up.
            Having Quilting Arts Magazine recognize Teens Alone and give proceeds from the beautiful calendar (I’m looking at my 2006 calendar right now!) is mind-boggling.

What are your dreams for Teens Alone?
            That we’ll go out of business! In a perfect world, adolescents would have fewer bumps along the road and parents could love their kids and find balance between allowing their kids to make mistakes and protecting them at the same time. Since I don’t think that will happen any time soon….my dream is that we remain a free, easily accessible, non-bureaucratic service. My other dream is that I’m standing in the background with a huge smile on my face, watching folks cut a ribbon for housing for kids without a home.

And if your home for kids becomes a reality I think I know a few people who would be overjoyed to make some quilts! I have to ask this--do the kids craft?
            We have a youth advisory board and one of the boys, who is a junior, knits. We also have clients who are beaders and painters.

We love hearing that! For anyone wanting to make a donation to Teens Alone, read on––we have an incentive for you!

Teens Alone & Quilting Arts Magazine Raffle

For anyone wanting to make a holiday donation to Teens Alone,if you make a monetary donation of at least $25 to Teens Alone by Tuesday, December 12th, 5:00 PM E.S.T., your name will go into a raffle to win one of three sets of sold-out Quilting Arts Magazine Issues 2-6. For anyone who has tried to obtain these on eBay, you know they go for big bucks. I have a handful of these issues left (for the future grandkids, of course), but I am donating three sets of these sold-out issues to three people who win the raffle.

Here's how to get your name in the raffle:
1.Go to TeensAlone.org and make (at minimum) a $25 donation. All you need is a credit card, and in the special message area, write QUILTING ARTS RAFFLE.

2. After you've made your monetary donation, email info@quiltingartsllc.com, and in the subject line write QA RAFFLE. In the body of your email write your full name and mailing address. Please note that it is crucial you include your full name and address in the body of your email.

You must make your donation and email Quilting Arts that you've made your donation by 5:00 PM EST on Tuesday, December 12th. On Wednesday, December 13th, I'll announce the three winners on the blog.

Good luck and I hope you donate. (It's good karma!)

Patricia

News flash!

Thanks to reader support over the years, starting in 2007, both Quilting Arts Magazine and Cloth Paper Scissors will be going to a six-issue publication schedule. Here's how the publishing schedules break down:

Quilting Arts Magazine
February/March
April/May
June/July
August/September
October/November
December/January

Cloth Paper Scissors
January/February
March/April
May/June
July/August
September/October
November/December

To say I'm excited about the new schedule is an understatement; it just means we can do so much more with both publications. With no quilt shows on the immediate horizon, we'll be heavily focused on editorial so if you have a piece of artwork or a technique you want us to feature, do tell us about it. (Submission guidelines can be found on our Quilting Arts, LLC, website.)

In celebration of the new publishing schedule, the first FIVE people who answer the following question AND email me their address will get a FREE ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION or RENEWAL to either Quilting Arts Magazine or Cloth Paper Scissors. Please note: You must be the first five to answer the following question on the blog and email me your address at editorial@quiltingartsllc.com.

Question: What was the single most beautiful, inspiring piece of artwork you saw within the last twelve months and where did you see it? Why did the piece have so much meaning for you? If you don't remember the name or artist, please describe the piece and let us know where you saw it.
If you see that you're not in the first five, I hope you'll still share with us!

Now for some inspiration…

In September I mailed 30 people kind enough to read this blog a small package of embellishments, which included hand-dyed coffee filters, ribbons, papers, fabric, and other bits of ephemera. (To see the particulars of the challenge scroll down to the blog post entitled "In Thanks.")

There were no rules how to use the package particulars and the results show how diverse and creative all of you are. I am so humbled by the talent!

Here are just a handful of some of the creations (I'll be posting more later):

Sue Bleiweiss

Ginger Henkel

 

Joanna van Ritbergen

Karen Stiehl Osborn

Lisa Gallup

In other news, tomorrow (Saturday) I'll be connecting with Bernie Berlin in New Hampshire to meet my new dog Sophie from Bernie's rescue program, A Place To Bark. John and I are so excited to welcome Sophie to our family, and I hope to post some pictures on the blog soon to kick off Bernie's mixed-media auction on eBay later in the month.

Have a beautiful weekend, everybody.

Back from the UK!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth last week at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. While I recover from a massive case of jetlag, I hope you enjoy some pictures...

I was so thrilled to learn that Jean Littlejohn and Jan Beaney of DoubleTrouble Enterprises were going to make an appearance at the show! Here I am with Jean (one of my idols); unfortunately I couldn't grab Jan for the photo op. as she was speaking next door at the symposium, "Why Not Quilts?"

John manning the booth with the illustrious self-portraits on the back wall. People loved seeing them in person...

Leslie Morgan of Committed to Cloth in the Virtual Studios. Anybody attending the quilt show could stop by this section to see artists at work. Here Leslie demonstrated  with screens, dyes, brayers, stamps, and discharges how a plain white piece of muslin can be transformed into a beautiful complex cloth.

 

This picture makes me happier than a Calgon bath. Don't you just want to sink your fingers into these containers? If features editor Cate Prato had attended the show (she's a sucker for buttons), she would have bought out the entire booth in about five minutes flat.

The one, the only, the beautiful Maggie Grey of Workshop on the Web. Drumroll.....she has a new book out. (Promise to post about that later.) She'll also have an article in a future issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. (I promise to post about that, too!)

Altered books by Angie Hughes (artist profile in our Spring 2006 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors). Unfortunately these pictures don't do these books justice, they were so luscious and textured.

The infamous Art Van Go van. (While still running a gallery and teaching center, Kev and Viv really do roadtrip all around England, bringing one-of-a-kind mixed media and art supplies right to the artist's door). Us Americans are green with envy.

Here I am with Quilting Arts Fall 2006 cover artist, Mai-Britt Axelsen. She didn't know she'd made cover until she spotted a copy at the Art Van Go stand. (We'd sent her some copies but she hadn't received them yet.) Apparently when she saw her quilt on cover, she screamed with joy in the Art Van Go booth. I love it when we make an artist happy...

Linda and Laura Kemshall of Design Works - Design Matters along with other "Six" members. It's ten minutes until the show closes Sunday evening, and they STILL have the energy to smile! I'm in awe.

That's all for now. On another note, we are at deadline for the next issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. If you have letters for the editor, we'd love to hear from you! Please email your letter (rather than post to the blog) to editorial@quiltingartsllc.com.

News!

Fellow Artists,

If you sent in ATCs for the blog swap I'm starting to mail mine back next week. If you did not get a Grant of Rights form from me via email for the ATC book please email me directly--editorial@quiltingartsllc.com and put "Grant fo Rights ATC" in the subject line. Please do not respond to this blog about the Grant of Rights, but rather email me. I'll check to see if your ATC is in the book and if so, send you a Grant of Rights via email a.s.a.p.

Secondly....drum roll... we're in the nascent stages for planning Make It University with Cloth Paper Scissors this fall at the International Quilt Festival/Houston November 2 - 5. I'm curious...if you could take any one-hour workshop you'd like on mixed media or collage, what would you take?  Hoping to plan for an exciting and fun time for all! I'll be posting info. on MIU on our website next month!

Lastly, is anybody planning to come to either the Pacific Northwest Quiltfest in Seattle or the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England ? If so, I hope to see you!

Quilt Market News & More

It’s been an exciting and busy May for us at Quilting Arts headquarters. Not only do we have a lot of material going to press, but we also visited beautiful Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN for the Spring Quilt Market. I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty and cultural diversity of Minneapolis, a city in which I’d never spent any time. Both John (my husband) and I tried to take advantage of the limited time we had outside the show hours to explore at night.  One fun, memorable evening was spent at Dakota’s, a notable jazz club where we heard the famous Nachito Herrera, a Cuban immigrant whose jazz talents at the piano have earned him bragging rights of playing alongside Santana.

At Market we enjoyed meeting new friends and re-connecting with old ones. We found a few exciting products, too, which we brought back with us. The first was Misty Fuse, a unique fusible webbing by Esterita Austen and co. This fusible webbing is incredible and we’ll be explaining why it’s so unique in an upcoming issue of Quilting Arts. A second product is from the Electric Quilt Company—a new kind of fabric sheet that can pass through your inkjet printer with incredible ease and yield terrific results for your photos on fabric. We placed a sizable order and hope to have it available on our web site very soon.

Bali Fabrics have come out with a new line of hand-dyed silks and other novelty fabrics in luscious, eye-popping, not-to-be-believed colors. I think I’m getting some samples from the company soon, and when I do, I’ll share pictures of them here. (When I was visiting their booth I was so impressed I think I actually squealed…embarrassing myself publicly yet again.)

When we returned back to the office last week, we were welcomed by a sweet surprise: advanced copies of Beryl Taylor’s new book, Mixed Media Explorations. For those who already pre-ordered copies, we’ll be shipping them later this week. I hope you’re as impressed with Beryl’s artwork as we are.

Lastly, I want to thank everybody who participated in the Blog Swap. I received more than 120 ATCs by the deadline and am just speechless. I’m now putting the final touches on this gallery-style book before it goes off to Rockport next week.

Speaking of next week, we’re at press for several projects so I’m going back into my rabbit hole. Until I resurface again in the next few days, happy creating!

Welcome!

I’ve always been slow to catch onto anything hip (proven by the fact that I’ve yet to watch a single episode of “Project Runway”).  Yet I’d get email after email from friends and colleagues who’d apprise me that they were journaling on the Net, and for me to come visit. Finally, I gave into curiosity when Lesley Riley told me that I absolutely must read Loretta Marvel’s expressive and inspiring tidbits of wisdom or she’d smack me with one of her fabric books. From then on, my morning ritual was forever altered as I now wake up thirty minutes earlier, sip coffee in bed, and slowly wake to the musings of others.

Hoards of artists are putting out wonderful, insightful, inspiring blogs reminiscent of “morning pages,” or warm–ups––ways for artists to work out their artistic fears and discover their dreams as they slowly, word after word, psyche themselves into a creative place. I discovered that blogs were a way to stay connected with the larger artistic community, to share works in progress (one of my favorite aspects of blogging), and to get feedback from friends.

In this blog I’ll be sharing a little bit about myself as an editor/quilter and using this informal, relaxed venue to ask you questions and share with you what we’re up to at Quilting Arts, LLC. I’ll share sneak peaks on reader challenges and updates on submissions. I’ll also post some reviews on the latest books and products that we weren’t able to fit into our magazines. Lastly, I promise to impart the latest information on calls for entries and upcoming events.

Speaking of events, I hope many of you are making your hotel reservations for the International Quilt Festival-Spring in Chicago, April 7-9.  Make It U! with Cloth Paper Scissors  is shaping up to be an exhilarating event at this spectacular quilt festival. If you’ve never been to this quilt show, you’re missing out. The quilts are mind-blowing in their creativity and sheer number—everything from traditional to art quilts with all kinds of media, and aisle after aisle of vendors, selling a myriad of fabrics and embellishments. (I spend ALL my hard-earned money at these shows.)  And you’re hearing it on this blog first: If you send in up to five ATCS for the ATC Trade that will be taking place right on the show floor, whether or not you can come to Chicago to get your trades, there is a very, very high probability that your ATCs will be published––in a book, no less. So I hope that you can sneak some time in this week to make up to five mixed-media ATCs and mail them to us to make the March 6th deadline.

Happy creating,

Patricia