When quilts go bad: Jo Ann's Fabric bans quilting magazine!

I wish I were kidding:
http://design-crisis.com/?p=272

While I do agree that some of those designs are offensive, I think banning the magazine is a bit over-the-top. For pities sake, who are we talking about reading this magazine? 9 out of 10 are grown women, to be sure.

On a personal note, I'd love to have a quilt made with the Dinosaurs eating the Tonka toys pattern. :-D that one's hilarious ;-)

This has made my day, especially knowing an education coordinator at a Jo-Ann's store.

I wonder if there's some sort of knee-jerk feeling that quilting is a sacred American craft, part of our pioneer heritage, to be preserved in its traditional forms and not fiddled with.

Lord knows we oughtn't to allow what was traditionally "women's work" to get bawdy, irreverent or show any kind of social conscience!

Makes me want to go out and knit something risque!

It's an artistic medium - what do they expect? I wonder if they've ever paused to think of all of the "controversial" items that have been made with their supplies over the years?

If you read through the article, these quilts were made to draw attention to other things. Even the most visceral image to me - the Klan and lynching superimposed against the Confederate flag - was done as a protest against South Carolina refusing to remove the Confederate Flag as part of their state flag. So which is the more offensive? A state clinging to "tradition?" Or a quilter visualizing what the flag means to them?

I'm guessing someone at JoAnn's said, "this won't play in the Midwest!" I'm also guessing the Jesus quilts were the bigger problem. Sadly, it was probably a pre-emptive ban to avoid calls from organizations to boycott JoAnn's for carrying offensive materials.

The main theme is that most of those flags were removed from exhibitions when the original exhibitors received complaints. Sadly, I'm guessing the complaint threshold for some was in the one-ish range...

I give props to the magazine - I bet this becomes one of their best selling issues ever.

Hey, there's some interesting stuff here! A short time ago, I visited the quilt museum in Paducah, KY, but I don't recall anything like this. Quilting is an art form, and arguably art, at its most powerful, should shock. So what's the problem? Is it just the issues raised, or, as strongly suggested in message #4, (gendered) traditional values?

#4: a nice hand-dyed, home-spun, custom-designed codpiece? Surely there's a market!

I really really liked that article - and as much as I love shopping at JoAnn, the editor of the mag is right. Older women aren't who we think they are - they definitely know how to get their naughty on. I think they missed an opportunity to sell a ton of magazines.

#7, that's hilarious! A friend and I were in the yarn store. There was some hellacious scratchy stuff in there, and she was joking (loudly, as we in our 50s are wont to do, partly b/c of hearing loss and partly b/c we just don't care) about crocheting jock straps out of it for all her least favorite male relatives. Like a hair shirt or a scapular. Only worse.

And I was just in Jo Ann's a couple days ago--I missed a chance to ask for this issue of "QH"!

Judy Chicago was creating potentially shocking fiber arts 30 years ago. Controversial quilts and fiber arts aren't new. I agree that censoring 'Quilter's Home" for including them in 2009 is overly cautious, and that Jo Ann's missed an opportunity to sell out on this issue.

My wife and I went to an exhibit of quilts at the Cincinnati Museum Center a few years ago. I expected to spend a lot of time yawning into my hand but, no, it was fascinating. There was some of the edgiest art I have ever seen on display and, once again, I had to tell my wife she was right.

I think I will call the local store and ask if they still have a copy. The only thing that will make these companies stop acting like the guardian of the public’s morality is if they think it will cost them money.

Wonderful! The article you linked to, the Washington Post article, and several links posted to the comments of the first article.... all wonderful.

Two of the links that particularly struck me are Home Street Home (http://www.alicebeasley.com/homestreethome.html) and Evil Rock Quilts (http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2007/10/evil_rock_quilts.html)--the first is serious social commentary, the second pure fun.

I've never shopped at a Jo Ann's--there isn't one convenient to me, and I'm more a knitter than a quilter. (Actually, I was in my local yarn shop yesterday for the first time in a while. The cottons were so luscious that I perused the local library's shelves for knitting books. Now I regret passing up Naughty Knits in favor of another title, and will borrow it the next time I'm there. At least the book I borrowed includes a "disco set" of sexy halter top and fuzzy boa-like shrug in metallic yarn.)

As for Jo Ann's supposed "demographic," I'm in my late 40s... which, in fact, means I was too young for Woodstock or the Summer of Love. We middle-aged knitters and quilters don't fit the stereotype. (I'm not sure any generation of knitters or quilters ever did.) And the younger generation of crafters are even edgier. In addition to the aforementioned book, I am seeing patterns for cell phone and PDA bags, laptop "cozies," bikinis, and some very sexy clothing. Quilter's Home is much closer to the current state of needlecraft.

There's a popular series of knitting books entitled Stitch 'n Bitch by Debbie Stoller. When Stoller expanded the series to crochet, the volume was called Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. Irreverent? Oh, yes.... definitely!!

Move over, Granny. Gen Y has picked up their needles and are re-writing the pattern books. (And anyway, Granny probably wore denim and tie-dye, back in the day...)