A fundraiser for Katrina survivors that Crazy quilters can participate in

I have an announcement to make as behind the scenes here there has been a lot of activity – emails have been flying, phone calls made and general bustle as people have been contacted and lists have been crossed off. So settle down with a cuppa as I am going to tell you of project that certainly has sparked my imagination.

I hope readers will consider joining this as the project is a fundraiser for survivors of the Katrina disaster. The aim is produce a gem of crazy quilt or quilts to be auctioned in March on the six month anniversary of the disaster. They will be sold on Ebay in the United States with the money going to American Red Cross.

What the project is

Emails have been flying as I have asked 19 well known crazy quilters to work an 8 inch block for a wall quilt that can be auctioned on ebay as a fundraiser. I hope that the participation of these people will generate interest in the final quilt meaning that a good price for the quilt will be realised. So we have 19 invitees and I am sure readers will have spotted that 19 blocks do not a quilt make – the 20th block will come from the public.

So I am asking for people to donate crazy blocks to the project. Images of all donated blocks will be published on my site and people can vote for their favourite. The winner’s block will be included in the invitee quilt. In other words the 20th block will be chosen from these donated blocks and chosen by popular vote. People are limited to working one block for the project as I am hoping that everyone will put their best work into each block. We are aiming for quality here not quantity.

To avoid confusion I am going to talk about the invitees quilt (with the winning block) and donated blocks quilt or quilts which will be assembled from the rest of the donated blocks. All donated blocks will also be made into quilts or small wall pieces to be sold with all proceeds going to the Red Cross.

One of the reason the phone has been ringing all week is that I wanted support for this project so it is with great thanks that I can inform you that all donated blocks are to be assembled with the help of Annie Whitsed and Canberra Crazy quilters – our local crazy quilting group.

How it will work.

I have written to all invitees and at the moment I am just waiting for the last few replies. Now I am asking people to join in. As I have said all blocks will be published on my site in a gallery and people can vote for their favourite. The winner is included in the invitee quilt. The idea for the gallery was Linda’s and it has a side benefit of being an online exhibition it will form a cross section of contemporary crazy quilting. As a community we will be able to provide heaps of eye candy to new comers to CQ and inspiration for old hands. Also in years to come because it is great snap shot of the style at a particular point in time people will be able to see how the style has shifted. Put simply it will help promote crazy quilting and provide a great archive.

When

Dates blocks are due to us is December 8th. When we sat down and took into account that this is an international project and people have to post their blocks to Australia which can take 2-3 weeks and that we all have a number of obligations already this was the earliest possible date. I also wanted to give people time to work a good block.

After the blocks arrive we will have the voting period for the donated blocks to select the block that will be included in the invitee quilt. This will be a period of two weeks. The winner will be announced on Christmas Eve.

Quilt assemblers here in Canberra will then go into action. Christmas and the holiday season will slow us down a little and I think it is extremely generous of Annie and the Canberra Crazy quilters to donate their time at this time of the year. We are allowing a month perhaps 5 weeks for assembly. We will then send the Quilts to States which will take up to 4 weeks, so they can be sold in March on the six month anniversary of the disaster.

It sounds a long time but people will still need assistance then and perhaps the first flush of donations will be drying up. The problem with disaster like this is that there is the initial crisis phase which people need help with and donations are given. With a really big disaster such as this however people will need assistance for possibly years. I am hoping that a 6 month anniversary date for the sale of the quilts reinforces that people do not recover quickly, but do recover with help.

What is required
Please don’t disqualify yourself from being a winner by not reading the guidelines.

Block size:
An 8 inch block in other words the visual area to be 8 inches worked on a 9 inch foundation to allow for seams. This is important as blocks will be assembled into quilts. If blocks are different sizes it makes this task just about impossible.

Number of blocks:
People are limited to working one block for the project as I said we are aiming for quality not quantity.

Theme “All that Jazz”
We thought Crazy quilting is versatile enough to act as both a memorial and a positive statement about rebuilding lives. New Orleans is the Jazz mecca of the world and as Pam pointed out is well known for its Mardi Gras . It is doubtful that New Orleans will hold one this coming year but it is a positive focus and events such as these bind communities together. We see a theme associated with music and celebration as being bright and positive and because music helps people deal with adversity. We thought we would call it “All that Jazz” and celebrate the past and the future of the area. The official colours for Mardi Gras are purple, green, and gold but we are asking people to combine these colours with bright jazzy colours. Positive celebratory colours that have associations of life and energy (not death) like red, hot pink, yellow, gold, orange, electric blue, purple and bright green.

Date Due to me
Date blocks are due to me December 8th please take into account that you are posting to Australia at a time of year when the post office is busy but we will have to strict about the due date as the gallery will have to be online and voting on the blocks has to take place.

Please include …
Include with your block a letter explaining the background and providing information about it. Better still email me the information as then I don’t have to type it out! This information will be included in the gallery site alongside the image of the quilt block and artists copyright declaration. Email and address will not be published for reasons of privacy but if you have a website do include the URL as we will include that on the gallery page too. Put your full name on the back of the block this is so I don’t get muddled as to whose block is whose!

Where to send the block
My postal address to send the donation blocks is:
GPO BOX 2801
Canberra City 2601
Australian Capital Territory
Australia

Who is running and assisting the project.
The instigators of this project are myself and Annie Whitsed of Annie’s Crazie World who will act as coordinators. Linda Barraclough of Chloe’s place has been acting as an advisor and I would like to publicly thank her for her input and ideas. Pam Kellog of Kitty and me designs is acting as our point of contact in America who will act on behalf of the project to auction off the quilts on Ebay. Of course we could not realise the project without Pam as our contact in the States. Also the project could not be realised without the assistance of the Canberra Crazy Quilters group.

Quilters that have been invited to participate
The invitees who have graciously agreed to create a block are:
(Listed in Alphabetical order)

Allison Aller
Allison Aller is a well known crazy quilter who hails from America. Her quilts have appeared in several publications and hung in numerous national shows. Allison also keeps a
works in progress blog.

Linda Barraclough
Linda Barraclough of Chloe’s place is an Australian Crazy quilter who has been active down under for years.

Valeri Bennett
Valeri Bennett of Farne designs in the UK who is also a blogger as she keeps Dyeing 2 sew Valeri is textile artist who is both an instructor and has exhibited her work internationally.

Catherine Byatt
Catherine is an Australian crazy quilter on the Southern Cross Crazies discussion list and is well known here. We voted that Catherine’s work should be better known!

Sharon Boggon (me)

Julia Camilleri
Julia Camilleri is a prize winning Australian crazy quilter who has had her work published in publications such as the Australian Embroidery and Cross Stitch magazine (making the cover on Vol11. No.8)

Nancy Eha
Nancy Eha is a well known beader, embellished quilter and instructor. Nancy’s work has been published in numerous magazines and she is author of Off The Beadin’ Path.

Willa Fuller
Anyone who has had any contact with any of the international discussion lists they will have encountered the work and energy of Willa Fuller. Willa keeps an eboard of her work at Willas Place

Vivienne Garforth
Vivienne Garforth of Anlabyhouse hails from Western Australia who has also had her work published.

Catherina Hollifield
Catherina Hollifield (Kate) has been an energetic bouncy member of the discussion lists and is a great crazy quilter. She keeps an eboard to display her work.

Pam Kellog
Pam Kellog of Kitty and me designs is a well known designer residing in he United States

Mary-Frances Main
Mary-Frances Main of Frequently Wrong, But Never in Doubt ,

Betty Pillsbury
Betty Pillsbury is a teacher whose award-winning work has appeared in numerous publications and been exhibited in the United States.

Rissa Peace Root
Rissa Peace Root has actively maintained her website Pretty Impressive Stuff providing over the years an online resource for stitchers. Rissa is also part of the team at CQMagOnline. Rissa Also keeps a blog Rissas Pieces

Janet Stauffacher
Janet Stauffacher’s work and site is the well known Vintage Vogue which was one of the first crazy quilting sites I encountered online possibly nearly a decade ago (is it that long?) and has been active in the community during that time.

Joan Waldman
Joan Waldman is an author of such books as Embroidery Stitches Quilt Savvy (Quilt Savvy) and Pick a Pattern Applique & Variations

Annie Whitsed
Annie Whitsed of Annie’s Crazie World is a prize winning Australian Crazy quilter who has been doing CQ since the 80’s and has had her work published in magazines such as “Quilts Downunder” .

I am waiting on the reply of two more participants and will announce when they have agreed. If they can not be involved I have a little backup list of people to ask which I will start working down until the 19 places are taken.

I have established a flickr group for the project called All that Jazz Katrina Hurricane Survivor Quilt which people can post images to as they work and join in on the discussion.

I will also be designing a button for people if they want to use it. I do hope people will join in and enjoy the project. Leave comments and please spread the word as it is a worthy cause.