Patchwork Underground

I’m supposed to be doing my taxes (uhg) but inappropriate quilting drama is SO MUCH more interesting!

So rumor on the street is Joann’s Fabric is kinda evil. I’ve been hearing vague rumblings about it for years (”they use bad chemicals,” “their stores have a creepy vibe,” “their fabrics are ugly,” “they give money to anti-choice groups, satanists, new world order people” etc.) but, finally, we hippie-liberal-conspiracy-theorists have concrete proof: Joann’s censored Mark Lipinkski’s Quilting Arts magazine for publishing “inappropriate” quilts!

This includes this gorgeous jesus-as-annie-oakley quilt (that I LOVE!!) by Shawn Quinland.…Its officially called “Jesus Get Your Gun”…

Is it just me or does Jesus look hot??

Other inappropriate quilts in the banned magazine issue include a (seriously) subtle penis quilt and a series of really gorgeous/well-done quilts that deal with the legacy of slavery and racism in the south.

So censorship sucks. Nuff said. But as a longtime Joann’s patron, I’ve gotta say that the “Joann’s set” is a purdy darn conservative bunch. There are exceptions and whatnot and, yes, “conservative” can really mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. (”Some of my best friends are conservatives,” right?) But as a queer crafter and all-around outlaw seamstress, I definitely keep it on the DL when I’m making a run to Joanns.

Like…as you’re getting your fabric cut, the lady will probably ask you what you’re making. Usually, I’ll tell her all about my plans for magic mushroom hippie pants. At Joann’s, I’ll just say “pants.” And if I’m making a ~* L-E-S-B-I-A-N * P-O-W-E-R *~ cross-stitch, she just gets to hear about the flowers in the border. But hey, on the upside of things, Joanns is definitely the #1 place in town to spot those funny bonnetted people with millions of kids. That’s always a sort of exciting cross-cultural experience.

I guess my point is, yeah, Joanns is being fascist. But they’re also just being good capitalists who know their customer base. I mean if those bonnetted people saw the western Jesus quilt, they might get uppity and organize a boycott, right? We already lost House of Fabrics. What if Walmart really was the only place to score affordable fabric in 99% of the towns in this country? Just sayin’.

(Thanks to Allegra for sharing this controversy with me!!)

In other inappropriate quilting news, I wanted to share quilter Boo Davis’ site, Quiltsryche, with ya’ll. This lady is ^&*%ing cool. She makes the cutest death metal quilts I’ve ever seen. Ok, the only death metal quilts I’ve ever seen. And they’re really really cute in an evil sort of way. Take, for instance, this non-subtle penis quilt:

Boo only lives a hop skip and a jump from Portland up in Seattle so here’s hopin’ I get to see her stuff in person some day! =) Definitely check her site out for more evil cuteness - she even does baby quilts and really nifty t-shirt quilts. (Thanks for letting me share your work here, Boo!)

Anyway, I could really get used to this jesus/penis/lesbian-themed quilting roundup thing. Methinks there’s definitely more to say here….

Enjoy folks.

xoxxo erin

Instructions for making my scrappy log cabin apron are on page 48 of the current (April/May 2009) issue of Sew News!!  You can see me wearing it my backyard before sending it off for its official magazine glamour shots in my portfolio under “Etc.”  This green-themed issue of Sew News is packed with lots of good ideas for sewing ecologically and cheaply so check it out. =)

xoxox Erin

Well, the Museum of Contemporary Craft in downtown Portland was awesome.

It was smaller than I expected but the staff were really friendly and the featured exhibits were really awesome and worth seeing in person. Downstairs there was the giant crocheted “jellyfish forests” (my girlfriend’s term) of Mandy Greer and upstairs there were these huge hand-embroidered line-drawing tapistries done by Darrell Morris.

The coolest part was that we accidentally happened upon a discussion panel with Faythe Levine and other crafters featured in Levine’s brand spankin’ new documentary about the indie craft movement called Handmade Nation. Quelle coincidence.

(This awesome poster is from Handmade Nation the book. Love it.)

So Handmade Nation. It’s a book, its a movie. It’s touring the country film festival style right now and you can actually see it in Portland at 5pm tonight for $10….which is a little steeper than I like my movies. (Hey, this is Oregon…we have $1.50 movie theaters here, man!) I’m going to wait until it comes out on video but I’m excited anyways. I got a chance to check out the book at the Museum and it’s a nice glossy book with profiles on a bunch of cute crafters around the country and pictures of them makin’ stuff in their studios. We go there in the middle of the panel so I didn’t really feel comfortable barging in mid-discussion but I did overhear some interesting stuff about feminism, class and craft. Food for thought….I’ll bet there’ll be more in the movie/book too.

(You can check out the book and the movie here!)

Short post! I’m supposed to be ruminating on a guest blog post for favecrafts.com (hi Caley!) about crafting as a way of life. Hmmmm. Doing it is easier than thinking of how to write about it. Thoughts?

I’m finally going to the Museum of Contemporary Craft today!  Since I’ve moved to Portland, this has been on my “must do” list but the hours have been wonky because I guess it’s “off season”…(which really leaves one to wonder…when is crafting ever off season??

We’re in luck because I read about one of the big exhibitions they’re having right now in FiberArts magazine.  It’s giant crochet sculpture/enviornments by Mandy Greer, called Dare alla Luce.

According to the Museum’s website, the exhibition is going to retell the Roman myth of how Juno created the world from breast milk.  I’m not too terribly familiar with Roman mythology but the pictures really speak for themselves.  These are all off the Museum’s website….

I’m so excited!  I’ll definitely report back later on….