See the 2010 Quilting Arts calendar finalists online

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m a finalist in Fresh Picked, the Quilting Arts magazine 2010 calendar contest, which features a theme of flowers, fruits, and veggies. Surprisingly, this year they’ve posted all thirty-two finalists on their web site on this page and this page.My two entries are on the second page. The reason it’s surprising to me is that in many cases artwork is kept under wraps until the big announcement of the winners. Maybe this will create a lot of buzz prior to the calendar’s release.

It appears that they’re using the “social media” approach a la Facebook, since if you join the Quilting Arts community, you can make comments plus rate each piece. Just curious what you would think about having your work publicly juried, in effect. Do you think it would bother you? Personally I’m fine with it, but a few of the comments are critical of choices the artist made which could be upsetting to some people. It also could be a drag to get a low rating such as one or two stars! Hmmm, maybe we should get used to people posting ratings of our fashion choices, hair styles, type of car, what we’re eating for lunch, etcetera.

In any case there are some fascinating fiber art techniques and attractive designs that are well worth browsing through. The apple shows the basic technique used for my Handpicked entry. I made the fruit and other elements separately first as little collages of various fabric fragments. After much rearranging, the hand, sleeve, and fruit were placed on the background, glue-basted, then stitched in place.