WFC: women's and men's fantasy

[sartorias]

The Crystal Ceiling: Is there still a distinction between "women’s" and "men’s" fantasy and horror?I found it interesting, and disappointing, that the panel was all women: Kate Elliott, Charlaine Harris, Nancy Kilpatrick, Jane Kindred, and Malinda Lo.I don’t know how many men volunteered, who picked the panelists, whether it was a man or a woman,

Comments

[torrilin]

As far as the quilt thing... yes and no

[sartorias]

Thanks for that elucidation about fiber artists and art quilts. So the man in question might not have been singled out at all because of his gender, but because his fiber art was display, and not meant for use, as most quilts (theoretically, at least?) are.

[torrilin]

Once you're at the point where you're in a big show, it's pretty theoretical. But yes, a traditional quilt is meant to go on a bed, or otherwise serve as household textiles.

But then, we're talking about a craft where a lot of the time, modern crafters would tend to call a trapunto quilt not quilting... so I am not sure their judgement about the art vs craft divide is unbiased. At least in the US, the pieced "folk" quilt is seen as the height of quilting, and a lot of quilters are unaware that it is quite a modern phenomenon. And the quilting itself is often seen as a waste of time compared to the piecing.

I do not understand this in the slightest.

[sartorias]

I can understand the modernity--when else in time was there such a rich variety of fabrics from which to choose one's pieces? Whereas my great-grandmother's quilt, quietly rotting in my closet because it requires restoration that I cannot afford, was made up of bits from worn-out dresses and household linens, all too weak for washing, now.

[torrilin]

Yah, tho even the reuse sort is a modern thing. Mind boggling

[sartorias]

Carpet-making, for one.

[heleninwales]

Didn't people collect rags to make paper? NB this falls into the Something I Probably Heard Once on the Radio category.

[sartorias]

They did in the 20th century, I remember those drives in the fifties.

Riches from rags

[negothick]

Paper-making from rags is a VERRRY old technology. Thank you for sending me off on the quest. I've posted about it.

[heleninwales]

I thought it was much older than that and a bit of Googling confirms that the rags were used to make paper from the very beginning of paper making.

http://users.stlcc.edu/nfuller/paper/

It did carry on right up through the 19th and 20th centuries though.

[nancylebov]

My impression is that there are two traditions-- showpiece quilts (from big pieces of fabric) and poverty quilts (from scraps). I don't have title or author, but I've read a book about early Texan quilts that were definitely in the poverty category.

[tekalynn]

"...Mrs. Rachel found abundant time to sit for hours at her kitchen window, knitting "cotton warp" quilts--she had knitted sixteen of them, as Avonlea housekeepers were wont to tell in awed voices..."

[aswego]

Knitting quilts? That's interesting right there.

Nowadays, at least, cotton warp is a kind of cotton string commonly used for warping looms, especially for projects such as rugs that require a heavy beat. Was Mrs. Rachel knitting with that kind of yarn, quilting with it (though the kind with which I'm familiar is pretty thick), or what?

[marycatelli]

Scraps? You used them for patching.

Rags and Tow-rags

[gauroth]

Amongst people who made their living transporting goods on canals in the 18th and 19th centuries, rags that couldn't be used for anything else were tied to the rope connecting the horse to the barge. That made the rope more noticeable to other people using the towpath - rather as sometimes if a lorry has a load that sticks out behind it will have a rag tied on to alert motorists to be careful.

This 'tow-rag' tended to get trampled into the mud and yuck on the canal bank, and ended up filthy and (even more) useless. 'You tow-rag!' is still an insult in parts of London - isn't that wonderful?!

History is fascinating! And this is way off the original subject, I know!