Quilters Take Manhattan
The Alliance for the American Quilt held a weekend event in New York City to raise funds for the Alliance, and I attended Saturday’s events. The day started with meeting my good friend, Benedicte, where we had fun conversation and a light brunch before heading to F.I.T. (the Fashion Institute of Technology).
Marianne Fons
Marianne Fons started the program with an excellent lecture entitled, “Why We Quilt.” She discussed various reasons — such as community, love, comfort, and even money — showing slide show examples and telling stories. Her daughter Mary followed. While she was animated and her lecture amusing, I found myself stuck on some of her statements. There were times I felt like saying, hey — I started quilt making in my young 20s (doing needlework prior); there’s a whole world of quilt makers that are unafraid of funky color-combinations and trying all types of “nontraditional” methods (she only had to look around the room to see what people were wearing and carrying); many of us over 40 and much over 40 get harshly judged by “veterans” not understanding our work (as in that’s certainly not age relevant); and not only do we get technology (I’ve met many at the event some 20 years ago in online chat rooms before the graphical interface was invented) we regularly buy any i-gadget we want. How’s that for being on a soapbox! What I heard may not be entirely what she was trying to convey, and her message of love for her mom and the gift of quilt making love passed on by her mother was poignant.
Jay McCarroll
Moving on, next up was Jay McCaroll, the first season winner of Project Runway. After addressing the audience, members of the Alliance Board gave a short fashion show strutting across the room in some of Jay’s clothing featuring monochromatic patchwork.
Alliance board members modeling Jay's creations.
Jay's work
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Jay being interviewed by Mark
Then, the always entertaining Mark Lupinski interviewed Jay for the Alliance’s Q.S.O.S. — quilters save our stories. Many of the Q.S.O.S. interviews are archived at the Library of Congress American Folklife Center and are available for research. You can learn about about Q.S.O.S. here. Mark was very good at asking questions so we could learn about Jay’s beginnings — how he got on his road and where he thinks that road is going. Mark was great at weeding through various interesting tangents to get Jay to return and answer the original question. It should be a week or two before the interview is on the Alliance site.
The City Quilter
After 6 of us had a delicious dinner in the garden at the East of Eighth restaurant, we were off to a cocktail party at The City Quilter located at 133 West 25th Street (between 6th and 7th). What a great shop!
NYC-themed fabrics only available at The City Quilter
Alliance President, Meg Cox.
The art quilt gallery
The shop has a new art gallery, and presently on exhibit was gorgeous work by Japanese quilt maker Noriko Endo. I have Noriko’s book and will be giving one away on my blog in the coming days.
Noriko Endo's work
and more
The best part of the day was getting to spend time with friends, some like Judy Doenias whom I haven’t seen in years. Jeri Riggs (from our dinner group) is missing from the pictures. Sorry Jerri, we couldn’t find you!
Beth Carney, Benedicte Caneill, and moi
Paula Nadeltern, Megan Downer, Benedicte, and moi
August 10th, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Gloria I am in total agreement with you on the attitude of young quilters, well young artists in general. There is very little new in technique and i am so fed up with finding a “New” in a magazine or on-line that we made years ago. It is unreal how crazy quilting, embroidery and art clothes are resurrected, re-named them and recreated in a new book video or CD. The internet seems to make every think they are the only one……..
August 12th, 2011 at 6:40 pm
ha–this article hit me too. I look forward to the overview of the presentation on the Alliance website. It is annoying when one sees “NEW” techniques that we’ve learned and used over the years and might have been taught to us long-ago by a mother, grandmother or aunt. Maybe it’s time to reinvent macrame….!
The age relevant remark is also interesting….I won’t assume the context here, but it reminds me of comments sometimes made about how women should dress. e.g. “Is that outfit age-appropriate?” It is distressing to think that quilt-making or art of any kind would be judged in such a manner.
August 14th, 2011 at 1:13 am
What a fun day, and a great evening! I enjoyed the whole event and wish we had had more time to hang out and catch up! I enjoyed the panel, although the comments did rub me the wrong way also.
It seems to me that teenagers always believe they invented everything themselves, and perhaps that ageist attitude allows them a certain amount of freedom to discover the world for themselves. But it sure reminds me of my own youth! And my teenagers at home have the same attitude.I just laugh them off and say “It is a phase”….