Textile Artist

Despite my reservations, went back to the snobby quilt store today to purchase some materials for a circles quilt in muted tones. Once again, as predicted, the quilt store ladies were snobby, and to my horror, there was even a real life Prue & Trude pair loudly selecting 'japanese fabrics' for a 'mad, foolish quilt made of 4" squares' - women who have nothing better to do than hand made 10cm patch work squares. As someone who loves making stuff that is 30cm square so I don't have to spend years on it, I cringed and cringed and cringed.
Had a conversation about the lady who did their machine quilting, and I said, thinking about getting one of these, so I can do my own machine quilting. Response from snobby lady was 'why bother, you can pay someone to do it and you can start on the next one.' Hrm. This sums it up right there. Quilters are trying to make something pretty, even if they have to pay someone else to do part of it. I am trying to make something myself, so I can say I made it, and it's an expression of ME! Also, so I can develop cool techniques and skills - it's all about the creative process, not having something PERFECT at the end.
Like 6 1/2 stitches, I have decided I am not a QUILTER. I am actually a TEXTILE ARTIST. My credo is as follows

• The overall effect is what is important, not the price of the material
• It doesn't have to match
• It doesn't have to be perfect
• It doesn't have to be the traditional technique handed down over centuries
• It has to be fun to do (within reason, every process has a painful part).
  

So, this means, I can buy cheap material at Spotlight if it suits me, I can put scraps in, I can use op shop material I steal from Dj Bebe and big squares of 11" are always allowed. More credo updates to follow.