December 2022
President's Note
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
Programs
2022 Board
President - Carolyn Davis / Jamie Loncaric
Program Chair - Donna Daley
Assistant-Deb Houck
Treasurer - Rita Marie Smith
Recording Secretary - Angela Brant
Corresponding Secretary - Nancy DeTeodora
Membership - Elizabeth Young / Sarah Reindel
Ways & Means - Jen Burke
2022 Quilt Guild Challenge - Rikki Newlander
Quilts
for Kids Guidelines
To
make things easier for you, here are the basic requirements for the Quilts for
Kids (QfK):
·
Approximately 38"- 40" x
45"- 46"is QfK guideline minimum. However, bearing in mind that
these comfort quilts are given to kids from birth to 22 years of age, longer
quilts with less juvenile themes can be made for older children.
·
Due to immunity issues that the
children may have, only 100% cotton fabric is allowed. No-repurposed fabrics
like sheets, curtains or clothing can be accepted.
·
If it is a high-quality new flannel,
feel free to create a quilt out of it. Lower quality flannel pills and looks
used the moment it is washed so please do not use a discount store flannel
which does not have the high thread count necessary to stand up to numerous
washings.
·
No tied quilts due to potential
choking hazard that hand ties create and their inability to stand up to the
hospital washer and dryers. All quilts much me machine quilted for the same
reason. Fleece is not acceptable because
it causes static which can interfere with hospital equipment.
·
Use any pattern you like! Here are some downloadable patterns from QfK
website. https://www.quiltsforkids.org/patterns.htm
· Please use LOW LOFT 1/8 to 1//4 inch
batting. Cotton or poly or a combination
of the two is acceptable.
· Lots of machine quilting in your quilt
will help it hold up to the rigorous washing it goes through at the hospital. Please machine quilt in the borders as well as
in the blocks, about every 2 inches or so. Please do not use invisible thread
as it can melt in the hot dryer.
· Machine sewn binding is preferred so it
will stand up to the hospital wear and tear.
Our guild plans to use the string quilts
for POQG charity project and they will be used for QfK as well as Jen’s Hospice
program. If you want to make any other
patterns, please feel free and follow the the QfK guidelines above. Also please wash your quilt after you have
finished quilting it. I will also be
getting QfK labels to put on the QfK donation quilts. The label needs to be machine stitched to the
back of quilt. Write your first name and
last name initial on the label with a sharpie.
These quilts are a great way to practice your quilting techniques! Have
fun and we look forward to seeing what you create for charity!
Thanks,
Debora Houck
Note from Rikki: If you want muslin blocks 8 1/2 inch squares to email Rikki at rikki.newlander@gmail.com.I will then cut them for each person.
Bits and Pieces From The Textile World
Not directly related to the textile world but interesting and somewhat sad.
1. Crafters Reflect on
the Closure of Martha Stewart Living Magazine
by Clark Tate | Nov 20, 2022
The Magazine as Craft Material
For many in the craft community, the pages of Martha Stewart
Living proved to be not just instructional, but also inspirational. Tearing
them out and putting them on your bulletin board was Pinterest before Pinterest.
“As a consumer, as somebody who loves those little snippets of
daily wisdom or insight, I feel really sad,” says Amy Tan of craft brand Amy Tangerine. “I’ve been so used to holding the magazine in
my hands, and also tearing it apart,” she says, “cutting out what connects to
me, and then transforming that into a mini vision board in my journal or my
planner.”
Artist Lisa Solomon also
mourns the loss of the physical pages. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say a part of
me is really sad,” she says. “Because I feel like we’re losing so many tangible things. There is something beautiful about turning
pages and tearing things out.”
Sure, you can vision board digitally says Tan, but it’s not the
same, especially for an artist and author who got her start scrapbooking. “I
think there’s a different beauty that unlocks in us when we have something
physical to hold in our hands.” Tan has a special tie to Martha Stewart Living
because she was interviewed for an article that appeared in
its pages. She likes the idea that the article, which is about preserving
memories, is a physical artifact. As magazine’s like Living fade out, Tan fills
the void by clipping images from catalogs, mailers, and travel
brochures. She likes the brochures best, since they’re inherently aspirational.
The Magazine as Craft Instruction
Living really raised the bar when it comes to craft projects.
“Martha will forever be a crafting legend and she really has inspired
generations of makers, myself included,” says Rachel Mae Smith of the craft and
lifestyle blog The Crafted Life.
“She gave us proof that you don’t have to buy new to have
something pretty, that making it can look polished and professional.”
From the crafts to the photographs to the styling, the magazine
was a consistent source of inspiration for Smith and her business. “I loved
seeing how the magazine covered holidays, Valentine’s Day and Christmas in particular. Somehow, year after year, they
always delivered interesting and new ideas,” she says. “You can tell a project
is from Martha Stewart just based on the photography alone. That’s something that I strive for.”
Tan feels like the magazine’s DIY crafts always balanced a
feeling of accessibility and aspiration. “They had a great way of making the
DIY feel like you could actually do it
right. They empowered you.” Tan especially appreciated Stewart’s line of craft
supplies and paints at Michaels, which helped her find the right supplies for a
project. It was “coincidence or kismet” that Tan had her own line of crafting
supplies around the same time with American Crafts.
For Cerruti at Creative bug, the tutorials featured in Living
went above and beyond anything she’d
seen elsewhere. “I don’t know, who else would spend the time and the energy to
service these kinds of craft tutorials, with the attention to detail and
design,” says Cerruti. “Their approach to the content was much more
comprehensive. There used to be, like, a six page article on basket weaving or
something. I mean, nobody’s doing that now. It’s like a 10 second video that’s been time lapsed, if they’re even talking about it at all.”
That depth and specificity was important to Solomon, too. The
crafts were beautiful and the magazine walked you through the process masterfully.
“When she started doing it. Nobody was doing that,” says Solomon. “So I think
that’s why a lot of people in my age group, like I’ve talked to other people,
and we’re always like, ‘we secretly like Martha Stewart.’”
“She’s definitely in my life,” Solomon says, “whether I like it
or not. Every time I make stuffing, it’s
basically her recipe that I’ve, you know, changed a little bit over the years,
but it came from her.”
A Crafting Legacy
Martha Stewart Living wasn’t
afraid to revive old-fashioned crafts, showing them in modern colors with
beautiful photography in a way that was instantly appealing to modern readers.
“I feel like she was so sort of revolutionary in the craft
world, bringing historic craft to the forefront and getting the average artist
or homemaker interested in these specific crafting tools, history,
methodologies,” says Cerruti.
Cerruti still has a backlog of holiday issues that she
references for inspiration. “I think they were very thorough in telling the
story of more traditional American craft.” Solomon has saved old issues, too,
“I still have a stack of them in my studio. I can’t get rid of them. I just can’t. And it is fun sometimes to be like,
‘Oh, what did Martha do for Halloween in whatever year?’ And it’s still
relevant. I think it’s still good.”
Cerruti doesn’t see
anyone else coming in to fill the void and is sad to lose that resource, for
good. “I guess the secondary level of disappointment was that Martha Stewart
doesn’t have an online archive of the magazine,” she says. “How come the
Smithsonian doesn’t have this? How come
this doesn’t exist as a digital archive
somewhere?”
“I personally would pay a monthly subscription to have access to
her digital archive of magazines,” says Cerruti. “I’m just super surprised that
it doesn’t exist.” Cerruti sees this as a continuation of a trend of
information about historic crafting arts is getting harder and harder to find.
In the past, she turned to vintage craft books, but they are getting more
difficult to get ahold of and libraries have often decommissioned them. “There
are not a lot of online resources for those in archives,” she says. “And so you
have to go hunt them down.”
“I think crafting and food especially are, in so many ways,
something that people connect across generations, across cultures, through
families and Martha Stewart’s magazines facilitated part of that or highlighted
part of that. That not being done any more, that’s sad.” says Cerruti.
So far, it’s not clear if Dashdot Meredith, the media company
that purchased the magazine’s
brand in 2014, will continue Stewart’s crafting legacy. Moving
forward, they plan to focus on promoting MarthaStewart.com, according to the Register.
Then there is Martha.com, which features a flip-through digital magazine
experience with its 2022 Holiday Guide.
It includes links to a few detailed recipes, but no detectable crafts. What it
does do is conveniently link featured products to the online store, quickening
the connection between inspiration and commerce.
On Martha
“In terms of Martha,” says Solomon. “I was always in awe of her
and her team and also like, ‘Whoa, she’s so white and not anything like me, and
she has multiple homes.” It is a tension that Solomon feels elsewhere in the
art world especially between the makers and the buyers who purchase work to
hang in a multimillion dollar homes.
But to Solomon, it was Stewart’s unapologetic appreciation of
beauty that made her relatable. “I think the thing that was so resonant with me
was that she was kind of no holds barred about how challenging some of this
stuff could be, and about her aesthetic taste,” Solomon explains. “So it was
like, this is what I like, this is why I like it. This is important, because
aesthetics are important,” says Solomon. “I think that’s really valuable.”
“You know, women’s work has always been sort of pushed back,” says
Cerruti. Martha’s work elevated much of the care that goes into creating a
lovely home, holiday ceremonies, and nourishing food. She respected and honored
our homes and the people, mostly women, who labor there. “I appreciate
the fact that she had very strong opinions was not afraid to say what they
were,” Solomon says. “And that kind of permission is great, right? It isreally freeing.”
3. In a throwback to the Bluprint days, TN Marketing has launched CraftsyTV, a new streaming service featuring Craftsy content on Plex.
5. For those crafters who used Twitter (there was a strong knitting community there), Amy explains how to get started with Mastodon.
6. The Spellman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta will be showing Bisa Butler's Black American Portraits February 8-May 15.
7. Loose Ends is an organization dedicated to finishing knitting, crochet, and quilting projects loved ones have left behind. You can submit a project or become a finisher.
