Quilting time Proclamation

Editors note: The Queen has been away from Quiltland for far longer than she intended, mostly due to feeling exhausted and not at all funny. She apologises to any citizens who have cared. However, she is now rejuvenated and returns, in a funk, making proclamations left right and centre and with intentions to post all kinds of interactive goodies on the blog in the coming months....


Today the Queen stormed back into Quiltland after a prolonged tour to the UK, spitting (white swan) feathers, and called for a scribe. A Proclamation soon followed, a harried courtier handing out copies to the press still hot from the photocopier. A pressurised Equerry paused to hiss out of the corner of his mouth, "Its the AQS magazine. Its got her all in a huff. Something about a winning quilt taking 2000 hours to make." Later, a loose tongued lady - in -waiting was persuaded ( by a bribe of a box of Maderia rayon threads) to add, "She was crying in her studio and throwing blocks about. She said she felt inadequate and pressured. Something about not ever being good enough and she wasn't having it."

Our reporter has revealed that the magazine in question showcased show winners and included a miniature quilt of only 11" square with no less than 4,129. It is assumed that this explains the comment of a sweating footman who said, "She was storming down the corridor, muttering about someone having bothered to count the damned things and how was she to be expected to do that and run a country?"

The Proclamation is swingeing and ambassadors to Quiltland have been seen making frantic phonecalls to their homeland news anchors assuring them that in a private meeting the Queen (who according to the diplomat from Paduchah looked 'controlled but determined') had made it plain that she was setting a domestic precedent only and that she retained admiration and respect for all quilters who, in the privacy of their domestic states, spent the equivalent of one year and eleven weeks of a full time 9-5 job making one wall hanging.

The Proclamation was read at 10pm tonight from the balcony of the Queen's studio. The text read:
"I hereby declare that no machine sewn quilt made in Quiltland shall take longer than 50 hours to construct and no hand sewn quilt more than 100. Thinking, shopping and stash stroking time is excluded from this. Extensions will be readily granted ( without limit) to anyone who suffers a disability or impairment which slows their progress. Others need to get a move on. Value in Quiltland is to be measured in quotients of enjoyment, fun, spontaneity and sheer ability to get on and make the next one. It is not to be measured in quotients of obsession, perfection or fixated concentration.
"I have recently undertaken a royal tour of my citizen's blogs and have noticed that my loyal citizens are generally engaged in multiple projects of practical nature. I will not tolerate any of these wonderful people - and here I include myself in this - feeling that their work is less valuable or worthy because they did not audition twenty different colour themes over six months before even starting their quilt or because they could not contemplate using 1/4" hexagons.
"There are plenty of fora which will award accolades to quilts of such nature. Quiltland is not one of them. Here accolades will be given to quilts which exude vibrancy, play and exuberance. We will applaud simplicity, inept experimentation and quilts made from love. We shall prefer not those quilts which make us sigh and wish we could make them, but those which make us smile and rush to your own sewing projects with renewed enthusiasm. Quiltland will be a haven in which quilting is a pleasure and not a competative sport. To this end I commend this quilt, seen on my recent Royal Blog tour to you as one such which caused far more Royal inspiration than the AQS winners.
"To embed this Proclamation into the heart and souls of the Citizens of Quiltland I shall shortly be announcing a new Challenge. Those interested should add this blog to their Google Readers for it shall be posted as soon as I have time.
"And to that end - and because I can, this being my country, I make this Proclamation Law."