Quilts
With the Phoenix Risen celebrations recently past, commemorating the rebirth of Pan Historia after its meltdown in 2004, it also marks the birth of something else - The Craft Faire. A staple of The Craft Faire have been its quilts. Quilting events are held at The Craft Faire several times each year, to mark various occasions or holidays. A true labour of love, these events have proven popular with Pan members and in this edition of the Pan Historian, we've taken a look at this staple of our community.
The quilts at The Craft Faire bear similarities to traditional quilts on a number of levels, not just that they are a collection of different coloured squares. Traditionally, a quilt is a type of bed covering composed of a quilt top, a layer of batting, and a layer of fabric for backing, generally combined using the technique of quilting. Nearly all traditional quilts demonstrate artistic/creative expression and their functional raison d'être as well as their materials and techniques support their visual statements, expressions that can be as powerful viewed on a bed as from the flat expanse of a gallery wall. The same holds true of the graphical quilts here at Pan Historia.
The two founders of The Craft Faire, Captain Starcastle and Morgan Adams, took a bit of time from their hectic schedules to chat a bit about the origins of this regular event and what it means to them. As usual, I found my preconceived notions challenged by their answers….
Apepa: When did you first host a quilt event? Was it in Craft faire or was that done somewhere else before?
Morgan: The first quilting event took place as a holiday activity for Christmas 2004 and sort of grew from there as a regular holiday and seasonal event.
Starcastle: Some may not know but The Craft Faire was created in July 2004, just after The Crash by Morgan Adams and myself. We both have ‘crafty’ backgrounds in a variety of places and thought it would be great fun to create a place to share our craft knowledge and see what others are in to as well. We hit on the idea of the Quilt as a promotion gimmick for the [Reference] Book at first, being that quilt making is a craft, then decided to make it a community contest. We thought the use of graphics would entice folks to play along. And did they ever! That first contest (which now the quilts are community contributions and no longer contest based), was in December 2004 for the Holidays and had over 80 entries. Most of the Quilt pieces are still there. You can see The 2004 Holiday Quilt Squares here! It’s a task to be sure, especially when folks start posting their graphics. Daily DJ updates and all that. But we love the look! It’s very cool when they are all together on the Craft DJ.
Apepa: It all seems to have been so coordinated. Did you ever do this outside of Pan or make real quilts in Real Life? How did the idea of a graphical quilt occur to you in the first place?
Morgan: No, I never made a virtual quilt before Pan. Stumbled upon the virtual quilt idea while scouring the net for quilt graphics for a dust jacket image for The Craft Faire. I can't sew to save my life. This was a way to quilt without having to sew.
Starcastle: Nope! Pan is the first community site I’ve ever been in. And make quilts? Not really. What we thought of was to create a wall of graphics, a blanket….and it became ‘quilting’ in the discussion process. It gave folks at all graphic levels a chance to create something simple and small. And they look great when they are displayed on the CF DJ.
Apepa: They do indeed look good. It's always fun to look in on The Craft Faire DJ each day and see the quilt being added to day by day as people submit their little squares. It's a lot of dedicated work to stay on top of. You told me that you feel extremely passionate about the Quilts. It's not just another event or contest to you - you take it very much as a personal project. Why is that?
Starcastle: Wow! That’s a hard one to put into words. 
There are several things involved in how I feel about the quilt squares. Being a visual person, graphics (pics and art) are something I love to share. And obtain when I can. (You can see in most of my posts at the Craft Faire, I use pictures as often as I can). But more importantly, I think it’s a great way to bring the PAN community together. The Staff here at PAN are always working on ideas to better our community; we listen to what folks have to say, brainstorm to create games and events that everyone can join in on: such as the Phoenix Parade. When Morgan came up with the square idea as a contest, it was not so much about competition, but it was about folks joining in, in the fun. But it was also about sharing. When the quilt is finished on the Craft DJ, you can feel the love for PAN when you look at the little squares. I think that’s what it’s about for me. Seeing everyone happy together, enjoying our site, and making it beautiful at the same time. Personally, I have to say I get a thrill each time I add a new square to the quilt, watching it come together. I’m passionate about that more than anything I guess. And as you know, I am anal about posting them to the DJ. LOL Just possessive I guess. Or is the obsessive?
Morgan: Expression, Involvement, Community... That's what Pan is all about, isn't it! That's why we're all here! These quilts are a community effort, everyone is invited to participate, no matter what their level of graphic expertise! We showcase all squares equally. And it is that spirit that gives me the most personal satisfaction when I see the completed work on the dust jacket of CF. I feel that in some small way I was able to help foster community spirit!
Apepa: From the way people like to jump into this event I'd say you succeed. There are always numerous contributions and it seems you've found something that is relatively easy for more people to do, which in itself encourages participation. The contributions from members are really diverse and there are many talented people making good graphics on Pan. When it was an actual contest, how did you use to judge the winners of those events? I imagine it would have been hard...
Morgan: There are a few different criteria that we look for in a square, design, theme, inspiration/interpretation of season/subject -- and lastly which ones strike that I really LOVE that square!! note.
Starcastle: In truth it was very hard to decide on just 6 winners. The squares were so creative, and everyone did such a wonderful job, there were times when it came down to the ‘eenie-meenie-minenie-moe’ factor. We would start with the general theme of each square, process of elimination, then look at originality, load time, if they followed the pix format, and such, then narrowed it down to about 12 to 16. We kept the number even since it was just the two of us. Then we would each pick 3. Compare notes and was amazed at how many times we picked at least two the same. We tried very hard to keep the ‘skill’ factor out of the judging, as not everyone is a graphic wizard, including me. But I think we were pretty fair, considering. I’m glad it’s no longer a contest though. Truthfully, everyone deserves to win in these things…so now that it is a community quilt, the pressure is off and we can just enjoy admiring everyone’s creativity.
Apepa: How true! And it seems that not making it a contest has not hurt participation at all. But I also see that this is not just a case of you asking others to do something but not doing it yourself. You both like to make the little quilt squares yourselves. Where to do find the inspiration?
Morgan: Inspiration comes from all over, home, my kids, a blurb on TV, just about anywhere. When it strikes, I usually jot it down so I don't forget and translate it when I can sit down at the machine.
Starcastle: As I said, I’m not that graphically inclined. I don’t even have a very good graphic program, just something older that I can work with on a simple scale. Since we started the squares, they were seasonal; Christmas, Spring, Summer, Halloween, so that was part of the inspiration. I would just find picture and pull out stuff I might could use and make a cute little square. Nothing fancy. Just tried to make them meaningful, even if they had no text. I’m a scanning fool. I scan everything from matchbooks to cereal boxes to find graphics that might fall into one of those seasons. With this upcoming event; The Celebration of Pan Historia, combined with Summer, I’ll be looking for pics to represent that. I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with. Should be exciting.
Apepa: Yes, it should be. Summer is a great time to relax and do fun creative stuff. I look forward to the next event! Thank you both for participating in this interview!
