Quilting ‘Twelve by Twelve’

“At the time, we started with a ‘Let’s just start and see where this leads’ attitude. I don’t think any of us anticipated that we'd still be going, over two years later.”
Quilting ‘Twelve by Twelve’
Theme Mosaic for the 12th and final theme challenge 'Twelve': Twelve by Twelve Collaborative Art Quilt Project. (Kati Turcu/The Epoch Times)
6/11/2010
Updated:
11/26/2010
<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/1.+Twelve+by+Twelve+Mosaic_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/1.+Twelve+by+Twelve+Mosaic_medium-340x450.jpg" alt="Theme Mosaic for the 12th and final theme challenge 'Twelve': Twelve by Twelve Collaborative Art Quilt Project. (Kati Turcu/The Epoch Times)" title="Theme Mosaic for the 12th and final theme challenge 'Twelve': Twelve by Twelve Collaborative Art Quilt Project. (Kati Turcu/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-107149"/></a>
Theme Mosaic for the 12th and final theme challenge 'Twelve': Twelve by Twelve Collaborative Art Quilt Project. (Kati Turcu/The Epoch Times)
“There is something nonthreatening about fabric—after all, we all wear it and are surrounded by it in our daily lives. I didn’t start out as one who wanted to make art and chose fabric as her medium; I started out loving the process of working with fabric, and grew into the skills and perspective of using that medium to make art,” says US based quilter Diane Perin Hock, who initiated the Twelve by Twelve Collaborative Art Quilt Project in 2007.

The project involves twelve women from various countries and of various professional backgrounds who make a small quilted art piece each—12 by 12 inches—based on a theme or palette chosen by each member in turn, every two months. Themes are as varied as a dandelion, chocolate, water, identity, shelter, illumination.

“At the time, we started with a ‘Let’s just start and see where this leads’ attitude. I don’t think any of us anticipated that we'd still be going, over two years later, with a book about us about to be launched in the US, and exhibits in international venues. More important that the surprising public recognition we’ve received, though, has been the wonderful relationships we’ve struck through the projects,” said Ms Perin Hock.

Before the project Ms Perin Hock knew one of the other twelve women in person, but admired the work of the others who are now part of the group. “I so enjoyed seeing how each woman had responded to the same topic so differently. So, via email, I contacted them and invited them to participate in a periodic challenge.”

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/by+Diane+Perin+Hock_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/by+Diane+Perin+Hock_medium.jpg" alt="'All Hands' by Diane Perin Hock." title="'All Hands' by Diane Perin Hock." width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-107150"/></a>
'All Hands' by Diane Perin Hock.
One of the women invited to join the project was UK based Helen Conway who comes from a legal background. When asked why she chose quilting she told The Epoch Times: “I didn’t choose it. It chose me. I will say that in hindsight I was looking very much for something creative that would balance the academic and professional in me. For me the quilt art is about exploration of what is within me, seeing what I can do, showing what I can do and enjoying those processes.”

It is clear that apart from their interest in quilting, the women in the group have also developed deeper connections.

“I was the child at school who was always picked last by my peers. I was clever but rubbish at sports, so I was always the left over on the team for example. When Diane emailed to say she wanted to a group to play with and that she admired all of our art quilts so she had invited us to form a group, my first two thoughts were; ‘I got picked!’ and then ‘But I have never made an art quilt. Ok, Well I will now’. So the group really took me in the direction of work that did not depend of my version of traditional blocks. It also got me working small instead of in massive king sized quilts! But for me the main thing about this group has been the friendship and personal validation,” said Ms Conway.

Brenda Gael Smith who is also part of the group and designed the website, is based in Australia. When asked about the project she said: “It’s been incredibly rewarding from the development of our own artwork because we have taken the themes and developed the techniques and ideas and that has flowed through into larger works that we’ve done independently. But equally it’s been incredibly rewarding from a social perspective because we have gotten to know everybody else in the group along the way and a very warm relationship has developed between us all.”

Through sheer coincidence all three women interviewed for this article come from legal backgrounds, but Ms Smith does point out that there are those in the group who come from an art and design background though inexplicably there is also a “disproportionate number of redheads.”

As for the question is it art or is it craft and where might the line be drawn betwixt the two, there are some impassioned answers.

According to Helen Conway the distinction between craft and art is a false one. As for creating something for its own sake and not for functional purpose, that is something with which she still struggles: “People do tend to say to me ‘What do you do with them all?’ and I find that question deflating. It makes me feel that if there is not a purpose—a gift or a need for a warm bed covering or whatever —that I am being self indulgent and wasteful by spending the time and money in making something. I am working on that and think I will be for some time. I think it comes from my upbringing—a very good instilling in me of Protestant work ethic and the care with money that came from people who had been brought up in Post War rationing years.

“Those are qualities which have stood me in good stead and allow me now to have the financial standing to spend as much as I do on the quilting, but they are also values which if taken to extreme can stultify he joy of creation. I have to work at achieving a balance. That is where the blog and the ‘Twelve by Twelve Group’ has been invaluable. With the group I have a permission to play, a group to not let down, a process to which I am contributing and a responsibility to our community to fulfil. The blog allows me to display what I have done. I need to at least show people something that is made without function in mind.”

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/by+Helen+L+Conway_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/by+Helen+L+Conway_medium.jpg" alt="'12N 12W' by Helen L Conway." title="'12N 12W' by Helen L Conway." width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-107151"/></a>
'12N 12W' by Helen L Conway.
Ms Conway says that it is less a distinction for herself and more a wording that helps the non-initiated understand that quilts are no longer just blanket substitutes.

A recent exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum showed the blurring of these distinctions when antique bed quilts made for function and not at the time viewed as art were displayed with quilts made by people known as artists like Tract Emin and Grayson Perry. “These quilts are on the wall and presented as art but use the same materials and basic techniques as the bed quilts. It is a matter of the viewer’s perception,” said Ms Conway.

Ms Perin Hock also prefers not to take labels seriously. She says: “Early on, I thought of myself as a crafts person, and then had to work internally a bit to accept the label of ”artist.“ But pretty quickly I decided that I have no need to define what I do in term of ”art“ or ”craft,” and I think that the distinction is losing its significance in the fiber art world. After all, the Gee’s Bend quilts made by the Southern US quilters and bold graphic quilts from the Amish are now widely regarded as art, while I doubt that the makers worried about whether they were artists or craftspeople.

“I also can’t say that there was a particular moment when I decided to make something as ”art“ as opposed to function. It seems to me that good quilt makers always concern themselves with composition, colour, value, proportion, and other artistic principles, even when making functional quilts—so the transition to using those tools for smaller, ”non bed” quilts is an almost invisible one.

“What was a more significant decision to me was when I moved from making quilts using traditional block designs to developing my original designs. That shift, more than the use of the final piece, made me think of myself as creating art.”

For Brenda Gael Smith “a 12 by 12 inch work is designed to be on the wall and because we’re interpreting themes rather than making traditional blocks I very much feel that they are stepping into the arena of art and using fibre or textiles as our medium but if you look at each of the quilts they use a lot of different techniques and quite different styles and, yes, I do consider them to be artworks and we’re looking forward to sharing them in a gallery space that reflects that.”

One Thing That is Non Debatable is the Passion of These Women

“I try to avoid the word obsession as that would be to admit a kind of uncontrolled addiction. I am not saying it is not true just that I will not admit to it! It is certainly a passion. Everywhere we travel I look for design material or fabric. I have quilting podcasts on my commute. I get quilt related emails every day. We are currently house hunting so I can have a quilting studio. On my website I use the word avocation. Although the current meaning of that word is ‘hobby’ (one which I find a little dismissive for something which is so much part of my life) the obsolete meaning is the fact of being called away or distracted from something which is a better description for me of how quilting relates to my other daily activities!” said Ms Conway.

For those displaying symptoms of hording pieces of fabric and a tactile urge to take stock and perhaps stitch them together for either functional or purely aesthetic purposes—you’ve been afflicted by the quilting bug. It seems that lawyers and maths teachers are just as hard hit as artists and designers. Though if you are a redhead, it seems, there’s little hope of resistance.

“As a lawyer I conform to traditions and structures. In quilting I can express myself in any way I like and people value what I have to say. That liberation and acceptance sums up what this group is for me. And indeed what quilting has given me. Law is what I do. Quilting is who I am.” said Ms Helen Conway who is both a lawyer and a redhead. I rest my case.

Visit www.twelveby12.org for further information and up-coming exhibitions of the Twelve by Twelve Collaborative Art Quilt Project.