Postcards to South Australia

Thank you to all our readers who left a comment on our Celebration Awards. It's been a heart warming and eye-opening experience to revisit the significant body of work that has been created over the past two years. I collated the comments, allocated a number to each and then applied a random generator to draw Jennifer Loveder from South Australia as the winner of some freshly minted Twelve by Twelve postcards. Jennifer is a longstanding follower of the Twelve by Twelve blog and is keen to see if she can attend the WORLD PREMIERE of our exhibition at the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne, 29 April to 2 May 2010.

Kirsty and I will both be accompanying the 144 art quilts from our first Theme series to the AQC exhibition and will be giving floor talks. In additon, I will be teaching four, one day workshops ranging from Scrap Queen Odyssey to Stacks of Improvisation. The full tutor list and workshop program for the Australasian Quilt Convention 2010 can now be viewed at online and bookings open at 9am on Monday, 26 October 2009.

Most Surprising

Honestly, the first thing that comes to my mind is how surprising this whole experience has been. When Diane invited me to participate more than two years ago, I just thought it sounded fun. Sure, it's been fun. But, it's been much much more.

I have grown to know, respect, appreciate and completely enjoy every moment with the eleven other artists. A delightful surprise.

Also, I've created a body of work with my 12 pieces that I am very proud of and is a great representation of me as an artist. Who knew I was essentially creating a portfolio for myself? I would guess several of the other 12s would say the same thing. A delightful surprise.

As far as surprising quilts, where to begin?

Surprisingly similar: Chocolate quilts by me, Brenda and Nikki.
Surprisingly realistic: Diane's Shelter quilt
There are other quilts with lots of realism, but several of them include image transfer of photographs (which is wonderful!). I love this image that Diane created exclusively with fabric and thread!

Surprisingly candid: Terry's Chair quilt
Terry shared a lovely story about spending time with her granddaughter and her cousin. This quilt is so evocative of those experiences.

Surprisingly moving: Kristin's Twelve quilt
Surprisingly educational: Helen's Illumination quilt
I was totally unaware of Blackpool or Blackpool rock candy. Helen's original blog post was so interesting and I did quite a bit of internet surfing, "research" and reading about it after seeing this quilt.

I can't wait to see what surprises will come with the next round of "colorplay" quilts!

Most Bling

The Most Bling. This one was a hard one for me, not because I couldn't think of any quilts with bling, but because they were all mine. I seem to be the one who doesn't quite know when to stop when it comes to embellishment. The other members of the group are much more sophisticated and reserved. Their designs rely upon other strengths. The challenge of finding the most bling did lead me through another wonderful walk through all 144 quilts. And guess what I found, Bling!, and a beautiful, elegant example of it.

Karen's "Enlightenment" from August 2008.

Karen used beautiful sequined Indian fabrics and beads to illustrate the eastern religious idea of illumination signifying enlightenment. The sequins and beads make the piece sparkle!

Twelve Theme Postcards

We hope our readers are enjoying our Celebration Awards. Don't forget, if you leave a comment on one of our Celebration Awards posts, your name will go into a draw to win some Twelve theme postcards:

Most Humorous

The Most Humorous

I found it very difficult to choose the most humorous quilt out of all 144 (actually 132, because I wasn’t counting mine). Mainly because all of the quilts were created by such talented artists and each quilt exudes the artist’s creativity, thought processes, and inspiration.

I’ve chosen two for this award. One of those is Helen’s Blackpool Rocks quilt. Just looking at this quilt in action puts a smile on your face. Who would have thought to put a swirling, twirling, illuminated light wand onto a quilt? Why Helen, of course! But once you read Helen’s thoughts and history on her quilt, you soon find that humor replaced with reality.



The other quilt I’ve given this award to is Gerrie’s Passion quilt, Satin Sheets. With Gerrie’s quilt, you actually have to get the story behind the quilt to understand the humor. On first glimpse of the quilt you may not realize exactly what she is trying to say, therefore, the description and quilt must work together.

I Would Never Have Guessed

Since I was allocated the task of selecting the recipient of the I Would Never Have Guessed (Biggest Departure of Style) Award, I've been reviewing the individual Artist Gallery pages on the Twelve by Twelve website and playing a version of that Sesame Street favourite - one of these things is not like the others.

If you had asked me to play this game two years ago, pretty much all of the 144 works in the first series would have been eligible for this award. Not because any Twelve has necessarily departed from her trademark style but because back in 2007 (doesn't that sound a long time ago!) I didn't know some of my fellow Twelves and, even if I'd admired their work on their blogs, I wasn't at all familiar with their personal motifs and preferred media and techniques.

Fast forward two years and I think we all know a lot more about each other and our art. In the case of Nikki, I associate her creations with mixed-media exuberance - colourful yarns; a sprinkling of bling; beads, buttons and embellishments; layers of paint and colour; often enhanced by intensely machine-quilted texture. And just when I thought I had my new friend all figured out, she presented us with "something new" - Mom's Hideout, a gentle, restrained, contemplative piece with the image created entirely by hand stitching. I would never have guessed but I'm very glad Nikki shared this with us.

Which Twelve by Twelve quilt do you think is the Biggest Departure from Style?

Most Colorful

This should be easy, just look at the mosaic of all 144 quilts and pick out the one that stands out as using the most color, right? Not so easy.

I set about circling all the ones I thought used a lot of different colors, and came up with 34! OK, maybe I'm looking at this from the wrong direction. I thought about it for a while and came up with 2 new "subcategories" within most colorful.

The first award is "The Twelve that uses the most color in her quilts", and that award goes to Diane. Although everyone of us had at least one piece with a rainbow of colors, Diane had several, including "All Togehter Now" in the Community theme, and the wonderful "All Hands" in our "Twelve" theme.














The second category is "Most Colorful Theme", and that award goes to "Twelve". This was really a judgement call on my part, as several themes used a lot of color, but on this theme the variety of colors really stood out, including Gerrie's "The Twelves", Kirsten's "Midway", Terri's "12x12 The Board Game", Deborah's "Seven Houses, 5 Trees", Terry's "Twelfth of Twelve", and Nikki's "The Kissing Number".

I had fun reviewing all of our themes once more, and it made me so proud to be a part of this group.

How DID She Do That?

I'm pretty good at "backwards engineering" things that I see. I can look at rather complex traditional quilts and find the repeating blocks. I can spot Photoshop jobs from a mile away. I can figure out how most art quilts I see have been constructed -- even if I have no clue what was going on in their maker's head when they were conceived.

But I can't separate the layers on Karen's shelter quilt, and I definitely couldn't have visualized what she did.

Karen's subtle layers of hand dyed cotton, painted sheers, and screen printing all blend masterfully to create a believable atmosphere. If only I could step into my computer screen I know I could walk up those steps and feel the misty air. This is one quilt that I long to see in person so it may unlock it's secrets to me.

Biggest Stretch of the Theme

The award goes to... Kristin's water quilt - Sustainer & Destroyer!
Not only did Kristin choose to make a quilt about the destroying power of water, but she actually did use materials that can be destroyed by water. Soluble thread and interfacing, basting glue, watercolours...
And, can you imagine that she's planning to, one day, pour water on her quilt to ruin it? Such a lovely piece of work!
Kristin, if you really do this, I want to be present that day. And I guess all the other twelves will want to be there too... (Hawaii would be the perfect place, after our exhibitions of course.)

Most Likely to Get Pulled Over by the Quilt Police

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury:

You have now seen all 144 examples of the art created by the 12x12 quilt artists. I submit to you: they are a rowdy bunch, undisciplined and even messy in their studios, unpredictable and unrestrained in their choices of colors and materials. They are not an orderly group. (To be fair, they do meet their deadlines.)

With what infractions can they charged? Imperfect points? Haphazard stitching? Uneven edging? No! Such petty rules do not apply to these artistic conspirators. Instead, I offer for your consideration the following indictments:

Identity Theft: Terri
For using faces so beautifully in her quilts

Inflaming the Emotions of the Jury: Helen
For capturing our attention with moving stories behind her quilts

Embellishing her testimony: Nikki
For including wonderful beadwork, stitching and other marvelous detail work in her quilts

Speeding: Gerrie
For making the most amazing quilts at the last minute

Repeat Offender: Francoise
For creating a set of work with a consistency of style and color resulting in elegant cohesion

Walking the line: Terry
For using line so wonderfully as a strong design element in her pieces

Conspiracy: Kristin
For incorporating such thoughtful and complex layers of meaning in her quilts

Carrying concealed weapons: Deborah
For consistent and inspirational use of a personal symbology and color palette in her pieces

Trafficking: Kirsten
... in COLOR that is, for her delightful use of a multitude of color in her pieces

Caught red handed: Karen
That's paint and ink, I hope... For using such impressive surface design techniques in her pieces (Gerrie qualifies as an accessory to this, as well)

Double Jeopdardy and Murder: Brenda
For producing so many alternative entries in the challenge rounds AND for causing so much fabric to DYE (undoubtedly qualifying for the Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity defense)

Jury, what say you?

Creative Use of Materials

When I learned that my assignment was awarding "The Most Creative Use of Materials" award, I had to think for—oh—about a half a second! Helen, of course. No contest.

Helen sewed and quilted real maps. Helen used real coins. Helen used rolled paper documents. But I think Helen really blew us away when she revealed her "Illumination" piece and it was really illuminated. With real light—that moved—and changed.

Here is what it looks like in daylight. That's a party wand gizmo attached to the front of the piece.

Now, turn out the lights, turn on the wand, and this is what you see.

Pure magic!

Go to her original post here to see more, including a short video of this piece in action, and read what it all means. It is not all sweetness and light.

Helen never fails to surprise, delight, inform and make us think. I am so happy that the 12 x 12 project has brought her into my life!

And the "Separated at Birth Award"...

...goes to...

*dah dah da da daaaah*

"I Am More" by Terry and "Latent Colour" by Diane.

 

 

 

It's hard to imagine two more similar quilts being made in these circumstances. Whilst a large view shows just how very different each quilt is from the other, at thumbnail size they are most definitely twins. Amusingly, they also have a younger set of quad siblings - "Pop Art Identity" by Gerrie.



It was a close run competition, this one, but Terry and Diane were clearly the winners because they actually did it twice. Look at their Illumination quilts (Terry's Japanese Lanterns on the left, Diane's Happy Lanterns on the right)...

 

 

 

 

I have to add another award here (and then very tastelessly award it to myself) because it has been mentioned by more than one Twelve that the following two quilts are also rather closely related. So the Before and After Award goes to Nikki's Twelve quilt "The Kissing Number" and my Passion quilt "Oh". I leave it to you to draw the parallels...

New Blog Button & Celebratory Giveaway

With the completion of our first series of challenges and 144 wonderful art quilts, it's time for a new blog button that features the work of the challenge host for each theme:

You are welcome to add the button to your website or blog sidebar. Here is the code that you can cut and paste:

<a href="http://twelveby12.blogspot.com/">
<img src="http://serendipitypatchwork.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/12blogbutton2009.jpg" alt="Twelve by Twelve group blog" title="Twelve by Twelve group blog" border="0"/></a>

And, in case you are just joining the party, we are celebrating the completion of our first series of Theme works by sharing some light-hearted awards. Starting on October 12th, we will each post highlighting some of our favorite surprising and silly quilts. We invite our readers to think about what quilts you'd give these awards to and come back to let us know in the comments on those days. Everyone that leaves a comment on these posts goes into a draw to win some freshly minted postcards featuring the theme mosaic shown on our new blog button.

So far Gerrie has presented the "Also Ran" award and Helen has shared "The One I Wish I Had Made...". Coming up are:

• October 14th: Kirsten: Separated at Birth
• October 15th: Terry: Most Creative Use of Materials
• October 16th: Diane: Most Likely to Get Pulled Over By The Quilt Police
• October 17th: Françoise: Biggest Stretch of the Theme
• October 18th: Kristin: How DID She Do That?
• October 19th: Karen: Most Colorful
• October 20th: Brenda: I Would Never Have Guessed (Biggest Departure of Style)
• October 21st: Terri: Most Humorous
• October 22nd: Nikki: Most Bling
• October 23rd: Deborah: Most Unexpected

Welcome to the festivities - do leave a comment!

The one I wish I had made...

As soon as I was allocated this award to write about, two quilts popped into my head, one quickly after the other. Of course I have gone back to look at all our galleries again to refresh my memory but the same ones made my short list and I am voting for the one which I recalled first. However, by co-incidence when my husband Dennis was asked his view of the one he thought I wished I made ( yes, we do tend to over complicate things in our house!) he picked the second one.

So, the winner is... Chairs by Gerrie Congdon.

For me it is a wonderfully evocative piece which conjours up all kinds of untold stories which is maybe why it sticks in my mind. Plus, it is made with all kinds of techniques I don't yet know how to do but which clearly are capable of creating the kinds of quilts I often have in my mind. Last week I visited Camden Stables Markets in London and was berating myself for forgetting my camera. The place was full of quirky signs and items that would have made a wonderful quilt, and, as I was trying hard to memorise it all, it was the style of this quilt I was thinking about - even before I was allocated this award. So it wins for being both memorable and inspiring.

The close runner up is Marquise de Coëtlogon by Kristen La Flamme. This was made for one of our earlier challenges and when I saw it I realised the game had just been upped. I was amazed that one small quilt could have such detail, that the back story was in itself so ornate and that so much effort had been put into the beaded borders.

Of course, like any quilt show you are free to disagree with the Judge and we suggest you comment below with your vote. All the quilts can easily be viewed either by theme or by artist at our website.

For Some, One is Never Enough

Some of the Twelves often made more than one piece for each theme. To Brenda goes the award for producing the most work in search of the perfect interpretation of each theme. I think that she made more than one piece for at least 7 of the themes. And sometimes, Brenda made more than one extra for a theme. Kristin comes in second, making more than one piece for about 5 of the challenges.

Diane, Terry and I made an extra piece for only one of the themes — Diane and I for chocolate and Terry for Shelter.

The others may have had other great ideas, but only completed the pieces that were shown on the blog.

I have been asked to select my favorite Also Ran. That was easy and probably because I had seen it in person. That would be one of the pieces that Terry made for Shelter. You see it at the beginning of this post. It was a pictorial representation of her, then, new home. The colors make the home look warm and welcoming. I also like the way Terry stylized the tree, shrubs and plants. She ended up doing a piece with strong, simple graphic elements, a quite different interpretation of shelter. And because Terry is so talented, they are both terrific.

The 12 Days of...

It's been a fun-filled two years completing 12 challenges together. We're about half way through viewing each artist's collection of quilts. I don't know about you, but I'm really enjoying seeing how all the pieces work together -- the preferred styles and color palettes, the compositions and themes. To keep the party going, we've got another fun series starting on the 12th.



In true graduate yearbook style, we're celebrating by giving out goofy awards. Starting on October 12th we will each post highlighting some of our favorite surprising and silly quilts. We invite our readers to think about what quilts you'd give these awards to and come back to let us know in the comments on those days.

October 12th: Gerrie: Favorite "Also Ran"

October 13th: Helen: The One I Wished I Had Made

October 14th: Kirsten: Separated at Birth

October 15th: Terry: Most Creative Use of Materials

October 16th: Diane: Most Likely to Get Pulled Over By The Quilt Police

October 17th: Françoise: Biggest Stretch of the Theme

October 18th: Kristin: How DID She Do That?

October 19th: Karen: Most Colorful

October 20th: Brenda: I Would Never Have Guessed (Biggest Departure of Style)

October 21st: Terri: Most Humorous

October 22nd: Nikki: Most Bling

October 23rd: Deborah: Most Unexpected