The Alliance for American Quilts—Anniversaries and Auctions!

Heads Up! Time is short!

The Alliance for American Quilts Crazy Quilts Auction starting date: MONDAY, OCTOBER 26th!!! Check your calendar! One quilt to be auctioned is shown in the photo to the left, Crazy for Pink made by Joan Kniffen.

AAQ's executive director, Amy E. Milne has taken a break from her busy schedule to tell us about a couple topics every quilter should care about. -- Dawn

As executive director of the Alliance for American Quilts, this is my favorite time of year—the warm buzz of Market and Festival in Houston is still in the air and it’s time for our annual small quilt auction.

During Festival this year the AAQ held a reception to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories project. It’s never more evident how important this oral history project is than when quilters are gathered together sharing and reflecting.

Through the Q.S.O.S. project, the diverse team of partners that is the AAQ ensures that these stories are documented, shared and preserved for future generations. We now have over 1,000 stories from today’s quilters presented on our website and archived by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Pictured here: Q.S.O.S. volunteer leader extraordinaire Karen Musgrave with AAQ President Meg Cox.

You can be a part of the Q.S.O.S. project in many ways.

1. Visit the AAQ website (www.AllianceforAmericanQuilts.org) and explore the Q.S.O.S. collection, print a few out to tuck in your bag or leave by the tub. You’ll find inspiration from quilters of all ages, experience levels and backgrounds.

2. Take a look at the Q.S.O.S. manual (www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/qsos/manual.php) on our website and consider becoming a volunteer interviewer.

3. Present the project to your guild or community leadership to see if they would undertake or underwrite their own Q.S.O.S. project.

Crazy for Quilts

The other exciting AAQ event at Houston was the exhibition of 85 small quilts, the Crazy for Quilts contest entries, including Joan Kniffen’s Crazy for Pink, the first photo in this blog. Our exhibit had great placement, just behind the German Fabric Forest exhibit.
 
The 16”x16” quilts are entries into the AAQ’s annual contest, this year celebrating the spirit of the crazy quilt. Entrants were encouraged to draw inspiration from one or more aspect of the crazy quilt: design, color, fabric, surface embellishment, history or any other aspect of this style. The response includes a full range of “crazy”-from traditional approaches to art quilts.

Seeing our contest quilts on exhibit at Festival is always thrilling—the hard work and generosity of the artists who entered and donated their quilts shines through to me, and the show-going public delight in the artistry and diversity of these quilts. Whether you’re a crazy quilter or not, I know you’ll appreciate the creativity, skill and stories embedded in these quilts, and you’ll soon have the opportunity to own one of them.

The eBay auction of the Crazy for Quilts entries begins on Monday, October 26 and continues through November 16.

The quilts will be offered in three 7-day auctions, all of which start and end on Monday’s at 9 pm Eastern. Visit the AAQ website for instructions for bidding and a full gallery of the quilts, including Michele Muska’s, Ciao Bella, Limoncello, above right. All proceeds support the AAQ, whose projects include Q.S.O.S., the Quilt Index, Quilt Treasures and Boxes Under the Bed.

Bio:  Amy E. Milne, Executive Director, has worked as a nonprofit administrator, an educator and an artist for the past 17 years. She holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design from North Carolina State University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan.

Amy joined The Alliance after serving 5 years as Executive Director of SeeSaw Studio in Durham, N.C. Amy works closely with its Board of Directors, board committees, members, partners and supporters to carry out the planning and implementation of AAQ projects.

Amy travels to national quilt shows and meetings that allow her the opportunity to network and meet with members of The Alliance's virtual community and to share our mission with new audiences.