Are you a "Fuddy-duddy" or "liberated" ??

I am bringing this subject to my blog from the HGTV quilting board. http://boards.hgtv.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5894011632/m/8041099593 (this link no longer works because HGTV deleted the thread)
If I say what I want to say over there, it will be deleted or worse, I will get a warning. This subject was started by Dyed Grey and read:

"I've been noticing a profusion of "liberated" piecing popping up on various blogs for the past year or so. I'm just not impressed with this deliberately sloppy piecing. Frankly, it looks a bit too Gee's Bend to me. There, I said it right out loud -- I think those GB quilts are just plain awful. Sure, I do admire what the GB women have done with limited resources, but I most certainly wouldn't deliberately try to copy the style. Publicity and docuementaries makes it art, I suppose, as well as postage stamps. It seems to me that "liberated" has become a synonym for sloppy and mismatched, as well as an excuse not to bother with symmetry. And what's up with this thing about letting the fabric "speak for itself" anyway? I really don't need to live thru the '70s or '80s again and don't find this trend "refreshing" in the least. It's not new and bold -- it's old and wierd just like it was then.Egads -- I'm a fuddy-duddy! I have plenty of unplanned mismatched seams and blocks ... I call them oopsies. I do like fun type of designs like the stars on Quiltville, or tipsy squares, strings, and such, but they all have underlying symmetry readily identifiable. hmmmm, maybe that's why I like them so much!Is this just one of those eye of the beholder things, or do you also think these trends are a bit on the oddball side? "

In the next 69 posts, two of which were mine, the over whelming opinion was against "artists" and for the new, well put together quilts...made by, I quote Kay lin, "Quilters who appreciate the craft and art of quilting". Here is her last post:

"I'd like to expand a little on my post, which was pretty negative. I love real quilts that are art - contemporary or traditional. Those masterpieces that are shown at the big national quilt shows are just breathtaking pieces of art. And our local guild has a wonderful quilt show each year that is full of creative, artistic, one-of-a-kind pieces. And we have all seen works of art on this board, that I couldn't begin to emulate, but love so much. The difference is, they are made by QUILTERS, who appreciate the fundamentals of quilting, and build their art on top of a structure of craftsmanship. What I had seen in the past few years are displays in public art venues by people who don't have any appreciation for craftsmanship, or any desire to take the time to learn. They think that their quilts shouldn't be held to quilters' standards, because they are really fiber artists. I certainly didn't want to disparage the people on the board and elsewhere who are making beautiful, one-of-a-kind works, but who still respect the craft of quilting. "

I believe this was in response to posts by geniebird and myself. I am afraid I will have to pick this post apart.

Quilts shown at national quilt shows are not original works of quilting art..and I mean the art of quilting. The Art of Quilting did not include a longarm, rotary cutter, a pattern from a Quilting book, EQ6 or a National show with Blue ribbons. Many of these so called "works of art" are so stiff with longarm quilting it would be almost impossible to actually cover someone with them.

" The purpose of a quilt in it's original form was for covering ones body to keep it warm".

QUILTERS....Hmmm, just who gets to wear that word?? The fundamentals of quilting never included the tools of today, and yet they were all quilters, many of which can be found in Museums and historical books. Structure of Craftmanship...now that one is a laugh. I can't see myself asking my granny if she was abiding by the rules and crafting her quilt with the structure of craftmanship.

Moving on to fiber artists. This poster doesn't have a clue on this subject and I'll add quilting in general. Just WHO arrived on the quilting scene and gave over the rule book to these NEW so called quilters?? If you handed any of them a stack of fabric cut from clothing and told them to construct a quilt, they would run for their EQ6 and longarm, hop on line and purchase fabric to support the pile of trash they were handed. They would cry and whine because they are real QUILTERS and shouldn't be expected to lower themself to the standards that QUILTS grew from.

FIBER ART IS PART OF HISTORY.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_art

Anyone who has the nerve to do fiber art gets praise from me. It is the most interesting form of art for those of us who work with any kind of cloth. No one said you have to fall in love with it but at the very least one should try to see the vision of the artist and add the experience to something they have learned.

My main reason from starting my blog was to become part of a place where people could express themselves in many forms of art. I love art. I lived in Italy for a while where all artists were encouraged to share their art forms with everyone. The many forms of art were not judged, but enjoyed.

The easy way to quilt is to jump on my EQ6 or find a pattern in a book. It reminds me of my grandchildren who grab for a calculator instead of using their brain to subtract a few simple numbers. Maybe that's why I have never tried to learn how to use EQ6. Any time you simply copy a pattern you are expressing NOTHING. What ever happened to people making something from there own design. We wouldn't allow our children to simply copy, we expect children to use their own expression...sadly they only have us as examples. After reading 69 posts I can tell you there is not much self expression out of the ladies on the HGTV quilting site. (I won't include the crazy quilters as they do a splendid job of self expression)

The closed minded remarks by the ladies only made me laugh at how sour they are on learning anything from history. It's really sad to think that anyone would consider National Quilt shows as real quilting...quilting where people really do use a needle and thimble.

The question should not be are you a Fuddy-duddy or liberated..It should be: Is your corset laced too tight or did you burn your bra!