while I'm on the subject, YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!

[truepenny]

I really don't want to pick on Bruce Seeds, because the fact that he came to my attention under inauspicious circumstances is no fault of his, but there's this thing in his FAQ:

Do you really make these yourself? Yes, the cutting, the piecing, the sewing and the ironing are all done by me, with one exception: the stitching process that binds the top, the batting and the back together requires special equipment. So I pay a service provider to do that step for me, in a pattern and thread color of my choosing. For most of my quilts, that service is provided by Patched Works of Elm Grove, Wisconsin.

Now, if you go to Patched Works' site, they do in fact have a special machine called a long arm, so what Mr. Seeds says here is not wrong. On the other hand, and the thing that's bugging me, "the stitching process that binds the top, the batting, and the back together" is called quilting. It's what makes something, you know, a quilt. The fact that he chooses to outsource this part of the process--while a totally legitimate choice with which I have no beef (although I'd prefer it if he'd phrased it slightly differently, so as not to give the impression that quilts cannot be made without special machinery)--really does reinforce the already somewhat more than subliminal impression that a divide has been created here between The Artist (design) and The Craftsperson (mere manual labor), and again makes the Milwaukee Art Museum's choice to showcase his work with their early American quilt exhibit--especially given the number of superb whitework quilts they had--almost painfully ironic.

Again, I think Mr. Seeds' quilts are lovely, and I do not think there's anything wrong with having one's quilts machine-quilted by a third party. (I love Rose Wilder Lane's comment in The Woman's Day Book of American Needlework about what nonsense it is to romanticize the non-technological past: her mother and aunts and grandmothers would have leaped at the chance to use a sewing machine.) My gripe is about semantics and self-presentation. And the valuation or devaluation of artforms created and practiced by women.

And now I really am going to shut up about this.

Comments

[spiffikins]

In a similar vein, I find it interesting to note that there are *many* listings on ebay for the pieced-together tops of patchwork quilts - you buy it, and quilt it yourself.

I remember my mother doing quilts - designing the top, piecing it together and ironing all the pieces - that was the exciting part. Sitting patiently and quilting it all by hand - that was the part that made it truly something from the heart.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Huh. Interesting eBay observation.

I have discovered that I actually enjoy hand-quilting. I also enjoy piecing. The part I hate is measuring and cutting the fabric--which of course makes it difficult to get to the bits I do enjoy.

[alex51324.livejournal.com]

There probably is some way you could outsource that part, if you really wanted to. There are people around here who take in pieced quilts to quilt; they'd probably do the cutting if asked and paid sufficiently. (Lately my dad has been doing most of the measuring and cutting for my stepmother. I think he likes it because you can get Specialized Equipment--the clear rulers and different templates and rotary cutters and stuff. Probably not an option for you unless you want to enter into a polygynous relationship with my dad, but maybe you can find somebody among your acquaintance who likes that part?)

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

I think the cutting aspect has enough geek possibilties in it that you might be able to arrrange a Tom Sawyer and the fence-painting sort of gig at a con. Set up your materials and equipment in a well-traveled spot, with refreshments and a sidekick, and sucker in people who want to play, too.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

That part about hating the measuring and cutting is why most of my project list is still ON the project list.

[alex51324.livejournal.com]

Oh. My goodness. That is...wow. I also like how his answer, "Do you make these yourself" is "yes," with the "no" tucked in there at the end. I agree that outsourcing part of the work is a legitimate choice, but if you prefer not to answer that particular frequently-asked-question honestly, maybe leave it off the page? Here's your ticket, Mr. Seeds, and welcome to the Failboat.

And yeah, you don't need any "special equipment" to quilt, unless a needle and thread is special equipment. I've pieced *and* quilted entire quilts entirely by hand. (OK, they were crib quilts, but that totally counts. I knotted-through my full-sized patchwork blankets.) My stepmother quilts by hand, too, and she does way fancier stuff than I do. (All I've done is nine-patch and log cabin, with a couple of Western Star blocks in one of the nine-patch ones. She does all kind of fancy stuff--double wedding ring, butterfly appliques, etc. She's doing one for me now that I don't know anything about except that my sister says it's beautiful, but I'm excited about it.)

[19-crows.livejournal.com]

I also dislike the slippy way he describes how the actual quilting gets done, but the fact that he outsources it is okay with me. But I believe a lot of quilt artists do that, at least ones whose work I'm familiar with - Nancy Crow comes to mind.

There are church groups who'll quilt for money, as a fund raising thing. Some people hate piecing and love quilting and some people love piecing and hate quilting, so I've heard of people who team up and trade off who gets to keep the quilt. I'm in the latter category and have looked into getting someone to finish a wall hanging, but haven't found anyone in my area.

I was shocked in college when I found out that artists outsource printmaking - I thought you had to do it all by hand. I just looked up Gemini Graphic Editions and they're still in business. They do Ellsworth Kelly and Robert Rauschenberg, among others.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Yes, a lot of quilt artists do that. My friend cmerun12 does, and she regularly enters her quilts in competitions. In that world, it's not considered illegitimate to have the quilting outsourced, although you'd better be able to work with your topstitcher on a good design that flows with the colors and patterns, because you are judged on that as well.

[irismoonlight.livejournal.com]

I'm so with you on this. I am sure Mr. Seeds is a fine artist, but if it's a show of women quilters, could they not have found at least one of the thousands of women who make art quilts to showcase?

And a needle is not special equipment, or at least hasn't been since the last ice age. Sheesh.

Yes, I also know people who hire others to do the actual quilting, because they find it tedious. But, yannow, they do call it *quilting.*

[txanne.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD. Speaking as a former quilter and quilt-shop employee...long-arm quilting is an art form in itself. People win prizes at the Houston quilt show (see here: http://www.quilts.org/winners.html). They have divisions for traditional and modern styles, as well as hand and machine quilting.

Picking on this guy is perfectly legit, IMO, and the museum shouldn't have glorified him.

(To clarify: outsourcing is fine, pretending it's not part of the art is not.)

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

Although he is an entire league of his horrible own and Mr. Seeds may be an okay guy, this attitude about outsourcing skilled labor while keeping all the artistic credit and social capital to oneself is in fact one of the (several) things I really loathe about Damien Hirst.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to join the lynch mob of quilters with needles in our hand waving quilting frames in a dangerous way, and I too dislike Hirst's use of a studio of other people to actually make his art - but more because I dislike his art and place it completely on the crafts side of the scale. the actual practice is very like running a renaissance studio where by X means X gladhanded for the commission and was paid for it and may have contributed anythinng from 1 to 100% of the execution but did provide quality and style control. students and apprentices of X did up to 99% of the work and certainly most of the prep. I remember being a little negative about that when I first came across it but the more DIY and crafts I do, the more I love the idea of an artistic sous chef preparing materials and surfaces and doing the clean up!

Kaffe Fasset doesn't knit up all his own pieces - he has an array of people who knit up for him and he works with a handful of patternmakers and designers. that doesn't sound unreasonable for a knitwear designer (and knitting is only a primarily female activity post middle ages when it was a protected male guild - on my husbands home island men were forbidden to knit because it made more money than fishing so if they were allowed to knit the island ran out of fish). but with quilts, there are so many artists who do the whole process that it does seem skewed to pick one who doesn't. unless as it's for the gift shop, does his automation of part of the process mean he can offer more identical quilts or quilts at a lower cost price - for commerce that can matter more than the intrinsic artisitic quality.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

on my husbands home island men were forbidden to knit because it made more money than fishing so if they were allowed to knit the island ran out of fish

I love this detail.

[cassiphone.livejournal.com]

I think you're right to criticise! In quilt shows, a quilt which is pieced by one person and quilted by another is attributed to both of them. They have different categories for two person vs. one person quilts, and there's nothing wrong with having someone else quilt it for you - unless you take credit for someone else's work. Playing it down as he did is disrespectful!

[talkswithwind]

Or even three people if a third one did the design work. They've been well credited.

In fact, reading the attributions of the quilts at my local quilt show really underlines who has the long-arm machines in the area. The same three or four people keep showing up.

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

You DID relay this on to the museum too? Because they are suffering from a lack of education, which can be remedied, while Mr. Seeds is suffering from... a bunch of other things, most of which cannot.

I would happily cut out pieces for you. I like the cutting part, and the stacks of small, identical sized, many colored triangles and squares. Having them piled up in front of me makes me feel rich.

[stotangirl.livejournal.com]

(I love Rose Wilder Lane's comment in The Woman's Day Book of American Needlework about what nonsense it is to romanticize the non-technological past: her mother and aunts and grandmothers would have leaped at the chance to use a sewing machine.)

And, if I'm remembering right, toward the end of the Little House books, there's a scene where they did. :)

(Yeah, I know they're not really autobiography, but the point is still illustrated.)

RE: Little House

[disassembly_rsn]

I believe I remember the incident you're talking about.

It was after the Ingalls family moved to what became the town of De Smet in Dakota Territory. Laura would have been in her teens, I think. It had been arranged that during the summer she would take a job in town - the lady of the business needed help making shirts, as there were enough single men in and around town that shirt-making was a paying proposition.

The business had the first sewing machine that I think Laura had ever seen. Laura herself didn't touch it - she was there for the fine details of making buttonholes and putting on buttons - but there was a sort of wistful attitude among the distaff side of the Ingalls household that you could only really justify the expense of a machine like that as part of a paying business.

It might have been in LITTLE TOWN ON THE PRAIRIE, maybe.

Re: Little House

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

They do get a sewing machine later on. I want to say that they used it for Mary's traveling outfit, but can't remember for sure. I'm pretty sure they used the sewing machine for part of Laura's wedding dress and/or trousseau. It was pretty clearly used for specialized sewing, like tucks (IIRC), rather than "ordinary" stitching.

Re: Little House

[stotangirl.livejournal.com]

Well, now I had to track down my copies of the books! :) The part I was thinking of is in These Happy Golden Years. Laura's father buys a sewing machine as a surprise, because, yes, Laura's getting married and Mary's coming home, so there will be more sewing to do. They specifically mention how easy it makes doing tucks, but it sounds like they use the machine for making an entire dress.

The thing that I remembered (that prompted my comment) was how they admired how even the stitching was, and how it was so much better than hand-stitching.

But disassembly_rsn is right: the first time Laura sees a sewing machine is in Little Town on the Prairie when she works as a seamstress in town, and she doesn't touch it--she does sort of hide behind it, so she's blocked from being seen from the street.

Re: Little House

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I remember having a "comfortable" sort of feeling when I first read that book at six, because the sewing machine Garth Williams drew was very similar to my grandmother's. She used her mother's treadle machine all her life, never an electric version. I was fascinated by it, and liked the look much more than my mother's electric sewing machine.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Special Snowflake.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

I totally wouldn't mind if they picked the guy who did the fabulous airplanes art quilt about 15 years or so ago, and the Los Dios Muertos quilt that got banned a bunch of places. His stuff would pair really well with a broad range of modern female quilters.

But it looks like they weren't really interested in that kinda thing at all.

Do you know what this reminds me of?

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

It reminds me quite forcibly of the way that American and, I think, British artists used to go to Italy, learn to model sculptures in clay, and then "have them put into marble" by local "stone carvers", who were never referred to as artists themselves. Naturally, all the credit for the finished work of art went to the person who molded the clay. I was always rather put off by this when I read about it in nineteenth century novels, especially since my older sister is a professional artist. She's 13 years older than I am, and started taking me along to the studio at her college when I was 5. I got used to the sight of people sculpting massive blocks of stone THEMSELVES quite early, and was really startled by the idea that an artist would hire someone else to do that for him or her.

Re: Do you know what this reminds me of?

[disassembly_rsn]

I'm under the impression that Rodin did that kind of thing, but I haven't got a reference to back me up.

Re: Do you know what this reminds me of?

[cissa.livejournal.com]

I was honestly somewhat shocked to learn that most cast-glass artisans- so-called- don't actually cast the glass themselves; it is a tricky and exacting process, and so whether or not one does it rather than sculpting clay and hiring out the trickier stuff is REALLY relevant.

Also, one doe snot need a long-=arm machine to machine-quilt quilts, though I agree it's a lot easier with larger ones if one has such.