{"id":17177,"date":"2013-03-13T06:10:21","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T13:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/?p=17177"},"modified":"2016-11-29T17:54:12","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T00:54:12","slug":"quiltcon-homework-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/quiltcon-homework-1\/","title":{"rendered":"QuiltCon Homework #1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Weeks Ringle issued some homework in her lecture at QuiltCon and then <a href=\"http:\/\/craftnectar.com\/2013\/02\/23\/quiltcon-homework\/\" target=\"_blank\">posted it to her blog<\/a> for the rest of us. In a <a href=\"http:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/various-sundry-2013-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">recent Various &amp; Sundry post<\/a>, I briefly mentioned the QuiltCon homework. I glanced at it first and thought I would pass it on, which I did in that post.<\/p>\n<p>Then I went back and looked at it further and thought it would be a good exercise. I thought I would print and paste the homework into my journal and maybe write something about each section and make myself a better quiltmaker.<\/p>\n<p>I decided that I would do it here for all of you to read. Won&#8217;t you join me?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17178\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17178\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/QuiltCon-Homework1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-17178\" alt=\"Quilt Con Homework #1\" src=\"http:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/QuiltCon-Homework1-300x224.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/QuiltCon-Homework1-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/QuiltCon-Homework1-1024x766.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/QuiltCon-Homework1.jpg 1151w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17178\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Weeks Ringle&#8217;s Quilt Con Homework #1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>#1 is <strong>Know Thyself<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Do you know yourself as a quiltmaker?<\/p>\n<p>Weeks writes &#8220;<b>Know thyself. <\/b>Make a list of what you\u2019re good at \u2013 use your strengths to develop your own techniques and your own pattern. Now make a list of things that you don\u2019t know how to do \u2013 then figure out how to whittle away at this list to expand your skill set&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In order for me to make a list of what I am good at I first need to make a list of what I like and what is important to me about quiltmaking and relate it to myself.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I like bright colors, so I work in bright colors. It might be good for me to try out some beiges, but I don&#8217;t like beiges. I have bought some chocolate browns lately, so I am considering that to be expanding my horizons into the realm of depressing colors because there is no way I am making beige quilts.<\/li>\n<li>I want to make cheerful quilts. I want to make quilts that make people sing in happiness. I want to make quilts that make people smile when they look at them. So what if they aren&#8217;t dignified?<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t believe in the adage &#8220;buy ugly fabric, because it makes your pretty fabric look prettier.&#8221; To me, ugly fabric is just ugly. I have been down that road and refuse to do it again. Fabric is getting to be too expensive to buy what I don&#8217;t like.<\/li>\n<li>I like good technique, because *I* think bad technique can take away from the look of the piece. If that means making my half square triangles 1\/8&#8243; larger and trimming, so be it.<\/li>\n<li>I like to make well made pieces, because I don&#8217;t want my pieces to fall apart. I take my time in finishing and I rip out seams a lot.<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t want to be categorized as making a certain kind of quilt. This is such a hard thing to explain. I want to make the quilts that I want to make in the style and fabrics I want to use. I don&#8217;t want to be a traditional quiltmaker, I don&#8217;t want to be labeled a modern quiltmaker or an art quiltmaker (ironic, huh?). I want to make the quilts the my mood dictates.<\/li>\n<li>I like to work on projects that I like. This is my hobby\/passion\/vocation, but I don&#8217;t get money from it, so I want to make what I want to make.<\/li>\n<li>I like to reshape ideas into my own. This might mean that I take a block from the 1930s and make it over in Martha Negley and Philip Jacobs prints.<\/li>\n<li>I think knowing quilt history is important. Kind of like that old saying &#8220;knowing history prevents us from repeating the past.&#8221; I like to remind myself that women came before me and have done all this before. I appreciate different ways of doing things and different tools to get the job done, but I have no illusions that I am doing anything brand spanking new that nobody has done before. I have block books, so I can try and figure out who did it before and where I might find more information on how they did whatever the task is. To recognize those quiltmakers who came before me makes me feel like I am part of something.<\/li>\n<li>I think it is important to step up.\u00a0People before me shared tips and tricks.\u00a0 I have some knowledge and I might as well share it. The blog makes it easier. That is why I work with Sandy on her podcast, post tutorials, etc.<\/li>\n<li>It is important to support the community. I don&#8217;t mind sharing my tutorials. I want everyone to make quilts, buy fabric. Perhaps some of that karma will come back to me someday.<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t like it when people steal from my blog. It hurts when I have spent a long time working on a project and taking the time to post.<\/li>\n<li>I find it important to use part of my quiltmaking time for charity. If I can&#8217;t make a quilt, I&#8217;ll make a quilt top. If I can&#8217;t make a top, I&#8217;ll make some pillowcases. There is always someone who needs to know that someone else cares. I think charity\/donation quilts should be pretty. While I am making them, I can learn something new or try out a new pattern I normally wouldn&#8217;t work on.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As a result of the above, here is my to do list. These are not resolutions; these are things I will work on over the next 50 years.<\/p>\n<p>To Do:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Be more patient<\/li>\n<li>Practice curves<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t let my fabric sit around.<\/li>\n<li>Get back to that Pineapple quilt.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I am sure I will think of more, but this is a start.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>*No copyright claimed to Weeks Ringle&#8217;s chart of points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Weeks Ringle issued some homework in her lecture at QuiltCon and then posted it to her blog for the rest of us. In a recent Various &amp; Sundry post, I briefly mentioned the QuiltCon homework. I glanced at it first and thought I would pass it on, which I did in that post. Then I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/quiltcon-homework-1\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;QuiltCon Homework #1&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[402],"tags":[330,353,392],"class_list":["post-17177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-402","tag-other-artists","tag-process","tag-quiltcon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}