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| Dispatches
In this Issue: We say Good-bye! Books to Consider
Welcome Suzy Tankersley, the new QBL Program Coordinator. Suzy has a long history and experience in educational programming and management in higher education and non-profits and conference/workshop planning. She says, she is very excited at the opportunity to combine her vocation in education and avocation of quilting and love of textiles. She is looking forward to meeting all of you and being the go- to- person at QBL. Sooo….. look for the shortest person with the shortest hair behind the QBL registration desk and say hello. Oh, yes you may call her Suzy Q as her maiden name began with a Q.
Dorothy Caldwell is a Canadian textile artist coming to QBL as faculty for the first time in 2006. In the detailed biography on the QBL website, Dorothy discusses her interest in the “integration of historical work in contemporary contexts.” This interest is also evident in her path to quiltmaking, which also incorporates her interest in textile history. Dorothy says while she always liked quilts, she had not ever looked closely at their history until she traveled to Japan. Here she felt she was in a country with a long and respected tradition in textiles. While in Japan, Dorothy also discovered that there were many people in Japan studying and collecting North American quilts an experience that has made her realize that we too have amazing textile traditions. Dorothy spent over two years researching quilts by reading everything she could find, and by working in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the Museum of Civilization where she examined their quilt collections. Dorothy was the recipient of a grant to conduct her research, and the exhibition “Field Notes” was produced as a result. Dorothy’s work is also available on the QBL website at www.quiltingbythelake.com/quilt_gallery/quilt_pages/Caldwell2.html, as well as on the Bronfman Collection Virtual Gallery at www.civilization.ca/arts/bronfman/traeng11.html. Many of you will be familiar with the exciting and colorful work of Philippa Naylor (see some examples on the QBL website at www.quiltingbythelake.com/quilt_gallery/gallerypg5.html. Philippa has been a long time participant at QBL, but will join the faculty this year for the first time. Philippa’s path to quiltmaking has been a fascinating and international one. She began quilting in 1996 after a chance meeting with a Welsh woman at a Seasonal Bazaar in Saudi Arabia! They were both living there, and participating with other “expatriates” in selling Christmas items. Philippa was selling Saudi style Christmas cards designed by her husband, and the Wesh woman at the next table was advertising quilting classes and persuaded Philippa to sign up. Philippa’s first quilt was a paper pieced pineapple quilt made with four fabrics, even though she continued to make many traditional quilts for her home and family, she says she “was not totally hooked.” In Dhahran where she lived, Philippa joined a quilt group of about 100 women of all nationalities who met once a month to “chat, eat cake, borrow quilting books from the extensive library and to learn more about quilting.” Sounds like a guild meeting here! Each May the group put on a quilt show that included a themed challenge and in about 2001 the theme was curves using Kaffe Fasset fabrics. She made a quilt based on circles, “but it was horrid”, so she moved on to making blocks based on traditional designs, but distorted with curved piecing. Philippa says, “The curved piecing was very interesting to me and this has been one of the main themes I have pursued ever since. Just to see what happens if I twist this or distort that…” Due to the shortage of cotton fabrics in Saudi, Philippa began dyeing her own fabrics. She considers this a fortunate event as it led her to explore the use of graduating ‘colour’. Philippa used to hand carry all the dyes and chemicals back to Saudi after vacations, and says luckily her sons were not into clothes so she could use some of their baggage allowance for her supplies! Philippa’s quilts are notable for many reasons, but one of them is the extensive free-motion machine quilting which covers the surface. Philippa taught herself this skill with the help of Harriet Hargrave’s book, and many hours at the sewing machine. The actual quilting takes longer than the piecing or appliqué on the quilt top, but Philippa says she loves this part of the process and would always choose the free-motion work over any other part of quiltmaking. Philippa says, “I love the way the quilting and trapunto brings a flat quilt top to life and adds so much more interest. I have tried to develop a contemporary style of free-motion work which is unique to me and which is in keeping with the nature of my piecing and use of colour.” If you spoke with Philippa last summer at QBL, you may have heard some of her wonderful stories about her family’s 10,000 mile drive and 12 country tour on their return to Yorkshire, England and the restoration of their old Victorian house. Oh what stories! Perhaps she will share some with her classes this summer. However you may want to ask her about her new skills at brick laying, mortar mixing and outdoor painting at great heights! More stories here, I would guess. During the many months of renovations, Philippa was without a place to work. The wait was worthwhile, as Philippa now has a wonderful studio complete with a sewing table crafted by her husband, a restored oak library card drawers full of her threads, and the treadle from an old singer sewing machine to support one end. The rest of Philippa’s description of the room is best read unedited; “…a great big working wall is behind the machine with lots of light shining down from a new roof top window…the curtain pole is held to the wall with iron brackets my husband’s blacksmith grandfather made decades ago. A traditional rag rug, made by a lady in a remote Yorkshire village, is under my machine foot control. What a delight for a bare foot quilter to sink into when sewing.” Philippa goes on to say, “What a wonderful room with so many lovely things to inspire me to work. I’m really excited to be in a new place and to see where a different environment and lifestyle takes me. After the restrictions of Saudi having such easy access to art, exhibitions and such things as libraries is a delight.” It will be wonderful to see where this talented artist will go next! Look for Philippa at QBL next summer, and perhaps she will share a renovation story or two!
Long time QBL participant Carol Boyer has her dolls published in Art Doll Quarterly. One of her dolls has been published for the last five issues and one will be in the up coming issue as well. Congratulations Carol! Her dolls are truly wonderful, and I suspect they may come to life when no one is looking…Carol is the giver of the doll pins that circulate every summer, the ones you have to pass on if someone touches them. It has become quite a game, and even the QBL staff has become very protective of their dolls! Natasha Kempers-Cullen who has taught at QBL several times will be conducting her “MORE IS BETTER INSTITUTE” at her studio in Topsham, Maine again this year. For details, please visit her website at www.natashakempers-cullen.com. Nancy Crow continues her creative workshops at her barn in Ohio, with no less than 14 new classes through the spring of 2007. Please visit her website at www.nancycrow.com for more details. Nancy’s international tours through 2008 include Provence, France, Oaxaca & Chiapas, Mexico and Guatemala. Again, visit her website for details
I have read so many wonderful books lately! I recommend this one both quotes I have used in this issue are from this book. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. While this appears to be a book about writing, it is really a book about the creative process, perseverance and much much more. I devoured this little book and intend to go back and read it again and again. The writing style is comfortable and very funny, and there was, at least for me, a lot of wisdom in these pages. As has become the tradition in Dispatches, here is the second installment of the QBL 2005 book list! This list is compiled every summer by QBL friends and avid readers.
Design Exercise: CREATIVE CHALLENGE: LOOKING One of the most important lessons I learned from taking Judy Blayden’s “Beginning Drawing for Quilters” at QBL was about looking, and about drawing just what you see, not trying to draw a representation of what your brain tells you the object is. It is a lesson that has stayed with me in all the creative work I do. Along those lines, I’ll take a departure from the usual design exercise. Try this exercise taken from The Artist’s Quest for Inspiration by Peggy Hadden. “Try looking around you now, at whatever objects may be nearby, and make an effort to see them without thinking of their names. Study their shapes, colors, textures, and so on; allow yourself to see and explore without automatically categorizing them. Consciously look at five objects without tying them to names. It’s harder than you think!” I find this exercise very useful while waiting in doctor’s offices or sitting through boring meetings
Happy
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