The Goddess of the Last Minute Feels Rejected

The very first person to befriend me when our family spent a lovely two years in Chicago was the wonderfully witty Robbi Eklow. On my very first visit to the area she picked me up for a few hours of bead hunting and laughter and I've counted her as a friend ever since. I have enjoyed following her career as an artist and author and highly recommend her latest book, "Goddess of the Last Minute."

One of my all-time favorite writings of hers is her response to the rejection letters we all receive. She has graciously permitted me to repost it in it's entirety for you pleasure. Pull it up next time you receive a rejection and you'll be smiling again in no time!

What if quilt shows offered you the chance to write your own acceptance/rejection letter? Or what if they wrote letters saying what they REALLY meant, instead of those nice ones that usually say how hard it was to choose just a few quilts out of all the excellent ones that were sent to them?

Here are a few of my offerings:

• Your work has been accepted into our quilt show, please peel yourself off the ceiling at the earliest convenience.

• Your work has been accepted into our quilt show, please follow the enclosed directions for shipping it to us. And thanks for the box of homemade cookies. The jury was impressed.

• Your work has NOT been accepted into our quilt show, please proceed to the nearest quart of Mint Chocolate chip icecream and dig in.

• Your work is fabulous, we can't believe we didn't notice this before and have you in our quilt show every year. In the meantime, we are looking forward to receiving your current entry and possibly putting it on the cover of our book.

• We declined to accept your work in this year's our quilt show, due to the butt headedness of our jury. Although we could not convince them to recant, we have decided never to have them again, and next time will ask them what they think of your work BEFORE we invite them to jury.

• We're sorry, we cannot accept your work into our quilt show this year. In fact, we doubt we'll ever accept your work into our quilt show. Perhaps you should consider learning to operate a pottery wheel. We're keeping your slides in an effort to prevent you from inflicting your poor taste on another jury.

• We are declining your quilt entry this year. Whatever made you think we would consider a quilt using puce and chartruce in the same quilt? We are enclosing a free coupon for a color class at your local community college.

• Puleeze! Your work looks just like (insert famous quilter's name here). Haven't you had an original idea in the last ten years? Not that (insert famous quilter's name here) has, but that's beside the point.

• We are so sorry to have declined to accept your work into this year's quilt show. Your work is so incredibly amazing, the workmanship divine, NOTHING else submitted can stand up to it, why the WHOLE show would have looked shabby compared to your work. Since we do not want to hurt the rest of the artist's feelings, we have decided not to show them up by including your work.

• Dear Mrs. Eklow, even though technically, your husband's 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado DOES qualify as a quilt (three layers:metal, upholstery and padding, held together by bolts) we feel that the shipping costs of the traveling show would be prohibitive. We did consider using the trunk as a storage area for the REST of the show, but we can't find a garage big enough to house the car, and it's reported gas mileage of 5 gallons to the mile makes that idea inefficient. That said, we do admire your efforts to find a way to get rid of the vehicle once and for all without hurting your husband's feelings.

• Dear Mrs. Robbi Joy Eklow: Unfortunately for you, we aren't taking your quilt/quilts into our show this year. Mrs. Robbi Joy Eklow, we had over 750 submittals, but we can only show 25 quilts. However we do appreciate the $40 entry fee you sent, please send another $50 if you'd like a ticket to the opening night. We need to cover our expenses. Mrs. Robbi Joy Eklow your work was one of the outstanding entrees, and we're not just saying that even though this is obviously a form letter.

• Dear Mrs. Eklow, we can't accept your quilts into our multimedia show this year. We prefer the avant guarde work we've been showing for the past 40 years and will continue to reserve our exhibition space for those artists who've shown their work for that period of time. And this year, we'd appreciate it if you'd decline to send a rebuttal letter to our rejection letter. We don't care if you think those fabric blankets of yours deserve to hang next to or in place of the lovely oil paintings of dogs playing poker.

• Please return the enclosed postcard along with a check for $50 to receive a ticket to the opening night reception. We know you'd like nothing better than to spend an evening fawning over the artists who DID make it into our fabulous show. Drinks will start at 9pm, $10 for wine, $15 for margaritas. And we've got those cute little hotdogs floating in barbeque sauce. $3

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Art + Quilt: Quilt Indy Group

One of the things I love about textiles as a medium is that for some reason (perhaps our quilting heritage) textile artists are social beings. The Quilt Indy Group gets together on a regular basis and works through design exercises. I was honored that they chose Art + Quilt as their textbook of choice for this year and simply thrilled that they invited me to be a fly on the wall of their cyber-meeting space.

In this exercise patterned fabrics are photocopied and used to create compositions that focus entirely on the visual texture of the surface. Remember that actual texture is the way something feels. Visual texture is the pattern on the surface.

Here are two exercises by Carol. I love how she uses similar shapes but plays with the scale of the texture. I'm thinking she might have used the copier to reduce or enlarge the scale of the pattern and perhaps to even reverse it. Can you see how the scale of the visual patterns are set each other off?

The next two pieces by Lorie show how adding texture and pattern to the background can help to ground the piece.

Mezzie shows an even more dramatic example of how adding texture to the background can make the composition much more interesting. She's used the exact same composition for each piece but one is much more dramatic than the other.

Notice here how Von has not only changed the scale of the background in his two pieces but has overlapped the shapes. What happens to the textures and the composition in general when the elements touch each other? I think it gives the eye a path to follow.

Thanks to the Quilt Indy Group for sharing their work! Leave a comment and tell us what you have learned from seeing their exercises. If you are doing the exercises and wish to be featured by all means let me know!

Guest Post - Beth Berman

After seeing the work she did using techniques learned from my Surface Design Sampler Platter DVD workshop, I couldn't wait to introduce you to Beth Berman. She has very kindly written up some wonderful information on new products and the process she used to make this beautiful piece.

BETH:

You may already know about this product but it is new to me. I received a sample of the AVERY NOTE TABS and realized the sturdy stiff repositionable plastic note tabs would make perfect stencil material. I cut this spiral stencil and applied it to this quilt with silver paint. You can wash it and reuse it and it doesn't lose its tacky back. I store them by sticking them to the side of my bookshelf. This one has been used many times and just washed.

The quilt page (9x11) is a solvent transfer of the crow , a la Lyric's Surface Design DVD, then darkened with fabric paint, covered with a dryer sheet printed with a scan of three feathers. I hand carved stamps, thanks you Lyric- from Speedy Carve and used pearl paint. The dryer sheet idea came from Natalya Aiken's DVD, Texture Transformation: Stitch, Alter, Recycle. I LOVE the look of these printed dryer sheets. A tip from me: Buy the precut FLAT freezer sheets she recommends and avoid the printer jam headache.

These are 5 new crow stamps I made after watching Lyric Kinards DVD. One of the topics on "Surface Design Sampler Platter" was carving rubber stamps. She suggested Speedy Carve which is a soft, easy to carve material. I bought large sheets, carved, then cut each stamp out, yes, with scissors, and glued it to a wooden block which I polyed after stamping an image of the stamp onto the top of the wooden block. I now have a shoe box full of custom made stamps. I also tried linoleum blocks. Although much cheaper, they are harder to carve and slipping with the bladed carving tool was a problem for me. As a matter of fact, I've got a huge puncture right now. I'll spend the extra and use speedy carve exclusively.

(A note from Lyric - if you'd like a little extra fun, information, and interaction - my Playing With Paint class begins on February 19th through QuiltUniversity.com. It includes stamp carving as well as a number of other fun things to do with paint, includes four lessons and you have access to me for about 6 weeks. $36 isn't bad for all that!)