Wow….stupid people aren’t just on Wall Street; they apparently also inhabit the upper echelons of JoAnns Fabrics.  As a result of their decision to ban the March issue of Quilters Home Magazine because of an article evaluating controversial art quilts, I’d like to issue a call to boycott JoAnns until they reconsider their ill-advised decision and re-stock the issue.  Basically, JoAnns has decided that we are too stooopid to make our own decisions about what we want to read.  NOT.  Neither am I too stupid to decide where to spend my money.  I will spend it elsewhere!  I do not need to be told by someone else what I *should* or shouldn’t read.

Fundamentally, limiting public discourse –censorship– is against what we stand for as a nation.  There is a reason why Freedom of Speech is the FIRST amendment to the US Constitution, and the decision makers at JoAnns would do well to re-visit their high school civics texts along with a couple hundred years of history.

What follows is Mark Lipinski’s post which he shared on his yahoo group, Pickle Road (and printed here with his blessing).  To join the group, click here to be directed to the group home page.

Hello Pickles,

Here’s the scoop. I’m very sad to report that Jo-Ann Fabric and
Crafts has made the decision to ban the March issue of Mark
Lipinski’s Quilter’s Home magazine due to an article on “Shocking
Quilts and Controversial Patchwork: How Far is too Far?” Which
explores the ongoing debate as to whether art quilts have a place in
quilt shows, and if so, who makes the choice as to what is
appropriate or not. Of course, you must see the irony in this.

The quilts involved are:

The L Word by Diane Johns
God of OUr Silent Tears I by Gwendolyn Magee
Southern Heritage/Southern Shame by Gwendolyn Magee
I Remain by Randall Cook
Uncertainty by Galye McKay
Jesus Get Your Gun by Shawn Quinlan
Helping Hand by Mary Beth Bellah

In the article are photos of 7 art quilts that have either caused
controversy, raised an eyebrow, or have been banned in art exhibits
and/or quilt shows at one time or another (most, if not all, of these
quilts have been hung in public shows without incident at some
point) — and they range from political, social, religious, and
sexual (heterosexual and homosexual)issues. Nothing could be rated
more than PG-13, if that. That said, to be sure that all appropriate
precautions were taken; I had the magazine that are sold on the
newsstand wrapped in a clear plastic bag so to protect anyone who
might find it objectionable (which, of course, is the point of the
article).

However, the issue has been still been banned, which I find
personally upsetting because I think it’s a good article, but also
upsetting as part of the press being censored, art being censored,
and as a quilter who is one who doesn’t believe that a quilt is only
for use on a bed, that women/quilters can make their own decisions
about what they’d like to read/see, and more, that it pains me that
the industry at large is still so seemingly out of touch with who the
2009 woman/man/quilter is, as we continue to fight the stereotype
that we are all not little old boring subservient church ladies .

I’m really upset over it. This is a valid topic for a quilting
magazine and to me; it feels like someone painting the clothes over
Michelangelo’s paintings (which had been done).

Oh well, that’s the news. Please, support the magazine this month.
If you normally buy QH at Jo-Ann please know that you can find this
issue at Sam’s Club, instead. Also, don’t forget to buy it from
eQuilter.com and other online shops and TOTALLY you local quilt
shops! You can also find it at Barnes & Noble and Borders, etc.

Thanks! I’m sorry about all of this,and am really crushed and
confused, but please pass the information around so other quilters
know where they can find this issue.

xoxom (mark’s signature line)

End of quoted message.

To write to JoAnns and express your opinion on this matter, write to

Darrell Webb,
Chairman and CEO of Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
5555 Darrow Rd.
Hudson, OH 44236
Main number: 330-656-2600

Lisa Greb
Director of Public Relations
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
5555 Darrow Rd.
Hudson, OH 44236
330-463-3442
lisa.greb@jo-annstores.com

CK Media publishes Quilters Home Magazine and a number of other well known magazines.  To express your support for them and their policies encouraging open discussion, buy their magazines

McCall’s Quilting
McCall’s Quick Quilts
Quiltmaker
Quilter’s Newsletter
Sew News
and write to them at:

CK Media CEO, Will Marks, at wmarks@ckmedia.com

Thanks!

I subscribe to A Word A Day, published by Anu Garg and delivered to your mailbox five days a week.  Each day you get a new word, often esoteric, with definition, the best etymoligies and derivations I’ve ever seen (he takes it back through ancient Greek to Indo-European roots quite often, or Sanskrit or whatever…cool!).  Anyway, he gives the definition, usage in a contemporary text (today’s quotation was from an Aussie newspaper),  and a Thought for today.  I often like the “thought” best of all…here is today’s:

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY (Jan. 20, 2009):
And this our life, exempt from public haunt, / Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, / Sermons in stones, and good in everything. -William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)

You can find Anu’s website at www.wordsmith.org and AWAD here.  It’s free. And interesting!

Before life ran away from me (again), I said I’d add more pics of my new quilt storage.   Previously, the quilts had been flat on the bed, which was great for the quilts but not so good if you wanted to use the bed (which meant moving about 30+ quilts I think…I really ought to count how many I’ve made, shouldn’t I?).  Anyway, remember the tubes which I covered with batting and muslin?  Next, you roll your quilt on the tube; For most of my rolls, I have two or three quilts per tube:

Quilt rolled on tube

Next I made a muslin tube/sleeve  (I just used the serger, left the seams on the outside).  I cut 1 1/2″ wide strips of pretty fabrics (or rather, the “why did I buy these 14 years ago? fabrics”), folded them wrong sides together and serged to make ties.  I placed a tie about 4 inches down from either end of the tube/sleeve, and spaced about 14-16 inches apart down the center.

Quilt in musling sleeve, tied

Slide your rolled quilt inside the sleeve; it is easier if you place a plastic bag over the end of the tube that goes in first.  Since both ends of the tube are open, you can just slip the plastic bag off the end once the quilt is inside.   I cut the muslin the length of my tubes (54″) plus about 2-4 extra inches (for gathering at the ends) by about 22 inches wide.  If you have 40-44 inch muslin, just cut down the center to whatever length.  The completed tube is large enough to accomodate several quilts rolled on one tube.  Once inside, make a tuck at the long seamline to fold excess muslin neatly and tie.  For the moment, I have safety-pinned a post-it-note with the contents of each roll to the end of the muslin tube so I can identify what is where…I’ll do something nicer eventually.

Under the bed, I have two tall-lamp-moving boxes (only one in this picture, added the second one later), plus some under-bed storage boxes from Target.  The quilts that are rolled on the tubes are in the lamp-boxes (in this picture, just to the right of center) and over on the far left.  The second lamp-box went on the far left.

Rolled quilts and boxes under the bed

You can see swimming pool noodles, which are great for shipping quilts rolled–lightweight, soft, cheap if they are lost.  The blue thing on the far left is a long-skinny bag I made from canvas to carry my make-shift PVC-pipe quilt display stand (too heavy for air travel, but was cheap and works great for anywhere I drive to teach or lecture).

On the right you can see two storage boxes; there are two even larger ones in back.  I bought these for about $15-18 each (ouch!) at Target.  The largest boxes (in the back, not visible) are 42 inches long on the inside, meaning that some of my quilts that need to be carefully folded and not rolled (the Bijagos Warrior quilt, for example, is padded and thick, so doesn’t roll well, and the Autumn on the Village Green has cut copper leaves on it!) can fit inside with only horizontal folds.

My teaching samples are on the small side–26 wide or narrower.  I made several carrying gizzies (I’ll do a post on them some day….) and roll my class samples on them.  They are all in one box for easy access when packing to teach.  Finally, small quilts like my journal quilts (both the smaller 8 1/2 x 11 inch ones and the larger 17 x 22 inch ones) also fit inside these boxes.  I asked the conservators and textile specialists on the quiltart list, and the consensus was that as long as the actual quilt doesn’t touch the plastic…line with acid-free tissue or cloth…and you open the boxes periodically to refresh the air… that it is fine to store in boxes (which will also protect them from smoke damage should there be a smoke incident).  And when the bedskirt is down (not tucked up under the duvet), I don’t see the stuff!

Some day I’ll have my dream studio with a massive wall-long closet.  The doors will be design walls, I’ll have storage rods on the back for the quilts, and all sorts of cool things. And I’m going to make laminated tags using business card software with a picture of each quilt to replace the safety-pinned post-it note with the roll contents.  In the meantime this works quite well for me.  I’ve been under the weather (number one son brought home evil germs and shared…), and yesterday I luxuriated in lolling on the bed in my sunny studio with a book…for about 20 minutes. Sigh.  It was nice while it lasted.  Then I got to play mom-taxi.  Several times.

One of the highlights of the trip was brief but memorable:

The Maid of the Mist first set float with tourists in 1846.  No, that is NOT a typo. Obviously it was a different boat, but there has been a boat taking folks into the mist of the falls for over 160 YEARS… amazing!  What else is totally cool is that the Ontario side park is ENTIRELY maintained (and beautifully, with wrought iron railings, gorgeous hanging baskets, etc) through proceeds from sales in the park and fees and whatnot…not a penny of tax money.  Cool.

And a warning….LOTS of water pics!

Waiting in line to board one of the boats you get a great glimpse:

Here’s the first view of the falls as you approach on the boat….and speaking of which, they give you mist ponchos…essentially garbage bags with hoods…good thing too as you get wet anyway!  It was a gas!

Here is a narrow section of the US falls–love how I got the bird in the photo:

And a closeup of the cascade hitting the rocks….

And a good wide shot of Niagara Falls:

Mist spraying out from the Horseshoe Falls:

I LOVED the power of the water as it plunges over the crest…this is as you have passed the American falls and approach Horseshoe Falls (the Canadian side), which is here it gets REALLY misty moisty wet.

And at the end of the half hour tour, happy and wet (we all gave up on the hoods I think….plus it was so hot that day the wetness felt good):

And the next morning, as we got into the car to leave, what should we see but one of the highlights of the trip for the boys (which Joshua had to take pics)…..a Ferrari and a Maserati.  No one should be this rich.  And they can’t even carry groceries in the trunk I’ll bet….yes, I know, that’s not the point.  But for the cost of those two cars you could buy a nice HOUSE……

Next on the trip:  Mt. Washington and finding inspiration wherever you are…..

My first day in Paducah, I taught an evening 3-hour class called “Chunk and Jigsaw Fusible Applique.” This class is actually a portion of my Fabric Postcards all-day class which teaches various art quilting and embellishing techniques. I teach how to make up a small stash of fused fabrics ready for a quick project using leftovers from other projects (placed on the fusible web like a jigsaw) or small chunks of fabric…say 5×7 to 10×10 inches or so…. Then, we make a few postcards. For most students in these classes, it is their first time trying to design something, so I provide eight patterns. What is interesting, once I started providing a selection of patterns, the students didn’t use them! HOORAY! It meant the variety of ideas was enough to get them going on their own… mo’ bettah! Here are some of the results–the one above is one I would have loved to fly home with me… imagine, turquoise coneflowers…. glorious!

Note: if you were in my class and made one of these, PLEASE let me know and I’d love to include your name in this post! The class was so short that I wasn’t able to get names attached to each postcard for sharing here, but I did ask in the class if it was OK to share them. Michele E in Alabama… I’ll not share your wonderful birdie because I know you wanted to finish him/her before “going public!” but I adore him/her!

This student was game, despite never having designed something like a scenic card… I love how she placed the shapes, added the cut-out leaves, and used color. See how she cut out motifs from a batik to create the waterplants?

I love Love LOVE the swoopy roofline on this house! She had found some cool “postcard foundations”, in the YLI booth I think. They were dyed/painted, creating the cool colors and textures in the background… I’ll have to look for them! Also love how she used the circles in a Kaffe Fassett print (do ALL of us have this fabric in our stash?) for the window and doorknob.

Notice the cool not-quilting-cotton fabrics in the houses here?

Another student worked on a slightly larger background that the 4×6 peltex cards I included in the kit, using her awesome selection of sheers (which I wouldn’t have minded if they flew home with me, either). Her first piece was squares, in progress:

and fused up:

Then she made this totally wonderful sun scene:

One student with a completely different sense of color and composition than I have used the prints in her fabrics SO effectively:

The combination of soft batiks creates a soothing landscape:

And here’s another landscape under construction:

Despite the hour of the class– 5:30 to 8:30 pm — the students seemed to have fun, and I know I did. And the peanut M&Ms and Milky Way bars I brought to share helped!