What's New - October Meeting

Review of Lee Anna Paylor's Presentation

Lee Anna Paylor, as well as her quilts, stands out in a crowd, especially a crowd of quilters of the Baltimore Album. Her October program, a diametric opposite of what one would expect at a BAS meeting, forced the audience out of a more comfortable position - sitting in chairs. But very soon the members and guests were taking part in a playful examination of their creativity. We played games of imagination: what colors would taste like, what our houses sound like, what food we are - games that led us to look at ourselves. The Greek teaching, "Know Thyself", (lets ignore the other words at Delphi, "Nothing in Excess") in Anna's interpretation becomes a lighter concept: to know the fantastic within ourselves, to know the playful. She suggests that we play with our quilting - "if you do not like something that you are making put it in a bag with some one else's name on it." She argues that we don't have to be afraid to throw some things away. Ah I feel the pain already! But she comforts us by quoting, "I am going to keep my clutter; I collected it."

Other advice: "We need time - time to stare into space; buy tools - gadgets that we may never use; collect fabric just to touch it - 'our stroking fabric'; use mistakes to create something different and never tell others the mistakes that we have made; take classes - put together all that we have learned from our many teachers; try other crafts that will cross over to quilting; use our memories."

She suggests a design wall, our own space with lots of light, deadlines, and plenty of UFO's - unfinished objects. Lee Anna asked us to be aware of our five senses - three of each for each moment - three sounds, sights, tastes, smells, textures. She believes in quilt challenges - unusual ones that force the quilter to move to the farthest spot in the comfort zone and 'then to take a step sideways', and move farther.

Lee Anna Paylor's quilts reflect her philosophy of creativity. They are hot off the press - many made in several days; filled with brilliant colors, three-dimensional embellishments with beads, buttons and lace, metallic thread, even painted leaves (real ones); she uses whimsical characters - many self-portraits and pictures of dogs - flosses, reverse machine applique, machine trapunto, glitter, face painting, fantasy flowers with loose petals without using fusible web: all machine made. From the influence of her life as a watercolorist, she adds fabric painting to the wealth of color in her designs.

She gave us a lesson in creativity, freedom, imagination, and much other wise advice for living a healthy life.

Janet Esch

Quilts From October's Meeting

Quilts by Lee Anna Paylor

Lap Quilt 1