The photo above shows a part of the Cloth in Common exhibit at the Taiwan Quilt Exhibition earlier this year. Don’t our quilts look great? I think they do, in part because of a creative compromise that our group came to. What?—you thought we never disagreed about anything? Well, in fact we ARE a pretty agreeable bunch, but early on we came up against a point that we just could not find mutual agreement on—what size our quilts for this project would be. Some felt that large pieces would be just too demanding to keep up a schedule of every two months and advocated for smaller work. (I was one of those). I work slowly. I quilt densely on a regular domestic sewing machine. Others work quickly, some have long arm quilting machines that allow faster quilting. Some like the intimacy of small work, others love the drama of large pieces. Some asserted that “l can’t work that small” countered by “I can’t work that big.” Everyone had a valid point of view, so, for our first cycle we let it go and offered several size choices from large to small. The issue came up again when we headed into our second cycle when we could see that if we were to exhibit in the real world our motley assortment of sizes would not produce a tidy, cohesive display. We pondered it for several weeks without a good solution, then the suggestion was made that if all the quilts hung at the same length, perhaps they would produce a more uniform presentation, regardless of different widths. A compromise that everyone seemed happy with!

Compromise. It’s essential when working with others, whether it be family, or job, government or all of mankind. I pity the person who has never learned to compromise in even small ways. I look forward to seeing and reading about our group’s thoughts and ideas about compromise.

Here’s another shot from the Taiwan show. Do you think our compromise was a productive choice?