Julie & Me

My best pal Julie (that's her on the right) and I have known each other since August of 2008, and we have met each other in person twice. This photo, above, was taken the second (and last) time we ever got together. This was taken in June 2014 at the Zimmerman House in Manchester NH. Julie came up to New England that summer to see the Quilts in Color show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

I was thinking last night that I should tell our story, since so much of it has happened online and behind the scenes.

Julie helped me to achieve one of the big goals on my bucket list, a visit to the Gateway Arch in St Louis MO. It was one of the highlights of my life, and I will never forget it.

A German tourist took this picture of us that day, in October 2013.

This is Julie with Glorious, the diamond quilt we designed together in 2018.

This is Julie (left) and Chris Ballard, who quilted my quilt Letters From Home, in 2009.

This is me in 2010 with Obsolescence, the quilt Julie made for me as part of a swap.

 Here is Julie in 2010 with No Rules for Julie, the quilt I made for her for the swap.


Way back when when she and I were discussing the idea of swapping quilts, Julie was very particular and very specific about what she wanted. What did I want? "That green quilt you are making. That's very you," I told her. "That's interesting" she replied, "as I am just coming to realize that green is a signature color for me."


So how did Julie and I first get connected? She wanted me to make a Gizzy quilt for her tuxedo cat, Angel (Julie is holding Angel in one of the pictures above.) What did I make?

Yeah, I knew what I was doing last year when I ordered the book GREEN, for her for Christmas.

Even though we have been together twice, and we live 1127 miles apart, we talk on the phone about once a month (in marathon 2 hour conversations we literally schedule in advance), we are now in contact quite frequently. We probably text two or three times a week, even if it's just to share pictures of our grandkids, but usually it's to comment on what we are doing in the quilt studio.

Julie and I have a long story, and it's pretty nifty. I will tell the story over the next few days. We have shared some of the same life experiences (we became grandmothers within months of each other). We have inspired each other, and we have helped each other. We get ideas from one another, and we give each other honest critiques. I always want to hear what Julie has to say.

Value

When I studied the Philosophy of Art in college, the professor told us, "If you think artwork A is truly better than artwork B, then you are correct."  Of course it isn't that simple. I know the Colorado quilt is a beautiful quilt. I know it's well made, and well designed, but it's worth... I don't know.

That's why I needed to have the quilt professionally appraised by Gerald Roy, the country's leading quilt expert.

He counted the birds, he measured the size of the barn block. He turned the quilt over and checked out the signature panel on the back.

He loved the quilt, thought the birds were great and the barn was terrific. He thought the quilting was "perfect." Then he gave me the appraisal - much higher than I expected, and the highest of any of my quilts.

OK!

Knowing the quilt's value is nice, but being validated is ever so much better.

An Evening with Gerald Roy

This is Gerald Roy, noted quilt appraiser, while appraising my quilt, Flight of Fancy, last night.  It's so much fun to talk to him. He knows everything about everything quilt related. 

For instance, I heard the whole background story about Molly Upton's quilts being exhibited by QuiltCon Pasadena.  Both Gerry and I think her quilts are the Ne Plus Ultra.

Happiness Is...

This man is Gerald Roy. It was his collection of quilts that was exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston last year, and is currently on display at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art until February 2016, and then later in San Diego. He's on the Executive Board of Directors of the National Quilt Museum in Paducah Kentucky. He's an artist, quiltmaker and expert quilt appraiser.

It was in this capacity that I met with him last night as he appraised my quilt, Too Much Chicken.  He loved my quilt.  He said it was fun, but not silly. He loved all the little elements (foxes, the use of fabrics and the word jokes.) He said it was well made and beautifully quilted. (Check that smile on his face!) What a rush. It's one thing to have friends and family like your work. It's another thing when an expert loves it.

I've never been really sure about this quilt. It was fun and happy and somewhat ridiculous. Everybody who sees it smiles, and it was very heartwarming when Gerry turned it over and grinned from ear to ear.

The last time I met with him he asked me if I signed my quilts. When I showed him my discreet signatures on the back of my quilts he said, "Not big enough," so last night showed him the back of the quilt first.

He even loved that.

He said the workmanship and quilting were excellent, noted the quilt was extremely humorous and then valued it about three times what I expected. To say I was thrilled is an understatement of epic proportions.

It THAT wasn't enough...

 He signed my book. :-)

This and That Thursday

My son and DIL sent me these lovely flowers for my birthday, which was on Monday. It was one of those "0" years and I am still "in the Nile" about it.

This is where Millie has been camping out during the hot weather. On top of the Black Box quilt under the air conditioner. That cat's no fool!  The Black Box will be going to Paducah next week and on to Chattanooga for the AQS show there in September. If you see it, let me know what you think.  Millie is making sure the quilt is marked as HERS before it goes.  The other quilt on the coffee table is Julie's "Hidden Potential."  When I've got the AC running at night I cover myself with two quilts because it gets chilly, so I want to keep it handy.

As you can see I've replaced the Black Box quilt on the wall with "Too Much Chicken" (also known as "the chicken quilt"). It looks really nice.  It's a pretty nice quilt if I do say so myself. I made it as a lark and had a lot of fun with it, so I'm really pleased it turned out well. Here's another shot of it.

I've finally had a chance to sit and watch Gerald Roy discuss the exhibit Quilts and Color at the MFA Boston. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De8utOjr-G8. It's about 90 minutes long, but it's full of great stuff.  Gerald Roy appraised several of my quilts last year. At the time I didn't know that he was a Very Big Deal in the AQS.  We had a lovely chat while he looked at my work and exchanged views on quilts and quilting today. I was delighted to find we agreed on so many issues. He really loved my Nine x Nine quilt.

It was funny, when I was telling my pal Julie about the appraisal experience, she asked who had appraised my quilts, and I told her, she was like "OH MY GOODNESS! HE'S THE BEST APPRAISER in the COUNTRY!  How did you get him?" My answer was something on the order of "Um, I dunno. He lives two hours from my house?"

I've managed to get that awful summer cold that's going around, so I'm taking it easy. I'm still working on the Homage to the Square idea.  Here's a sneak peek of what's coming.

See this band of blue and white?

Would you believe it's exactly the same as this one, except for color placement?

I'll leave you to figure it out.