HOORAY!
There is a wonderful national contest specifically for crazy quilts this year and I want you all to know about it!
It is sponsored by the Alliance for American Quilts, a superb and truly unrivaled online resource whose aim is to "document, preserve, and share" all aspects of American quilt history up to the present (and into the future). Do check them out...and give yourself a lot of time to do so, too.
This year's contest is not only going to be a landmark showcase of the state of the art of crazy quilting today, but will serve as an important fundraiser for this nonprofit organization. All entries will be donated to the Alliance and auctioned off online once the contest is judged...the judging is done by Alliance members online too.
(For $25 per year, it is a very worthy organization to support and join.)
All quilts must measure 16" X 16"....so these are not large time commitments we are talking about here.
And there are prizes!
Here is the official press release put out by the Alliance's head of P.R., Meg Cox (author of The Quilter's Catalog: A Comprehensive Resource Guide, a book I own and love.)
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The nonprofit Allliance for American quilts announces a contest today for quilters of all ages that honors the spirit of the crazy quilt.
The rules are simple: quilts must be 16 inches square (in honor of the AAQ's 16th anniversary), and they must celebrate some aspect of the crazy quilt style.
Contest quilts must be sent to the
To encourage the participation of younger quilters, the
The principal focus of the AAQ is its website, the free, public portal into its fast-growing database of vintage, historic and significant quilts. This contest encourages quilters to actively use the website to inspire a personal interpretation of a crazy quilt, so a special online "gallery" has been set up to showcase the site's vast collection of crazy quilts online, which exceeds 1,000 images. The crazy quilts are found mostly at the Quilt Index, a project jointly run by the AAQ and
At the special Crazy Quilt gallery online, historian
"We hope people will interpret this contest theme as creatively and broadly as possible and we would really like to see younger quilters and first-time participants enter," says Amy Milne, executive director of the
Quilts must be sent with an entry fee:
The full rules and entry form can be downloaded at the website www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/projects/crazy.
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I hope many of you CQers will participate in this worthy---and I know it will be historically significant--event!
Sure hope you're planning to enter your Cottage quilt, Allie. It's bound to be a winner IMHO!
ReplyDeleteWooHoo... I just may have to take a little break from the Midsummer CQ and do a little something for this contest! Thanks bunches, Allie!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you wrote to me about this; we've announced it at CQInternational, and it will also be in the January newsletter. What a great group!! Thanks, Allie! Hugs, Cathy
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the info on your blog. =)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like fun! I look forward to seeing your entry.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I wonder if I could get myself motivated to make one too... I do love CQing!
There is one thing distressing about this and that is the quilts will not be returned but will be auctioned...I don't know if I could justify the time spent to donate a quilt - worthy cause or not... I like holding on to what I made - they take me a looooong time to create.. I wouldn't mind having a quilt of mine be in a show...but I put too much of myself into my creations to give them away...
ReplyDeleteI will be watching to see what does get donated though..sure to be some nice eye candy...
Hi Suze...
ReplyDeleteI do know what you mean, for sure.
For myself, I always just think when one of my projects leaves me, "Well, there is more where that came from"....
Maybe if you set yourself a time limit, like, "I'll give one or two weeks to this project"....adhere to that, and then think of it as a design exercise that will enhance all your further work...then you might feel comfortable participating.
I think as a show, this contest will be a landmark event in the history of CQ...wouldn't it be great to be part of it?
Just a friendly nudge...
Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to comment...
;-) Allie
I hope you other dear commenters will enter, too! The more, the more glorious....
I understand how Suze feels, and I thought about that before making a quilt for last year's Alliance contest, My Quilts/Our History. But I had so much fun making the quilt, and I really loved that it was the first quilt I ever made that was displayed at the big quilt show in Houston! In the end, because it was a personal quilt about my mother and her sister, I ended up buying it MYSELF during the auction -- but it only cost me $52 (the majority of quilts sold for less than $100, except those made by famous quiltmakers like Pat Holly.) . I didn't mind spending it because I believe so deeply in the work of the Alliance: I've been on the board 3 years, and the better I know it, the more I love it.
ReplyDeleteFor those reading Allie's info here, be sure and look closely at what the Alliance is calling a Quilt--the dimensions are 16" x 16"--that's not even the size of a wallhanging. More like the size of a journal piece or a large quilt block so it should be something that anyone could handle.
ReplyDeleteI'm so pleased that this contest isn't limited to US residents, and that they're accepting Paypal payments for the entry fees. I may just have to send them a quilt! Thanks for posting this, Allie. I might not have come across it otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI want to be in the younger age group and was sad that I missed it by 13 years...alas...
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