Truth Tea With Sugar, No Lemon

Molli Sparkles

Quilt maker to the stars. Spiller of truth tea.

15 Responses

  1. Farm Quilter says:

    Hmmm…I too get distracted by pretty, sparkly things, but when I tell someone I love their ______, in that moment I do love it and it is spectacular…but 5 minutes later, can I describe it, probably not! If I'm really attracted to a quilt or specific quilting, I'll save a picture of it on my computer which I may or may not ever look at again! Does this mean I need to limit my blog following??? My memory isn't going to improve, that's for sure!!! There is so much eye candy out there that after a while a while it all starts to blur! However, I can still see your D quilt!!!

  2. Auntie Pami says:

    Sweet tea. I did live in Texas after all. Some of the scrap vomit quilts were not to my taste. But they were fun. Scraps got used.eh, who cares really? I have a lot of quilts. A lot. They were therapy for me. Yeah, they're not pretty, but I don't care. They are warm. I'll have to post them one day.

  3. pennydog says:

    I have finished a quilt recently which I don't think is quite right, yet people steer away from helping me put my finger on what it is and instead choose not to comment (not many for what I normally get on a finish) or tell me it's great anyway. Sometimes constructive criticism is really helpful!

  4. charlotte says:

    Another thoughtful post. I just read Brook's post and loved it and her pretty cool quilt. Thank you Molli!

  5. One Wee Bird says:

    I totally agree with marching to your own beat and singing your own song…..me at the top of my lungs ……but sometimes it makes my brain hurt thinking about making sure I do just that. So I try to be, and like your undies always wear them along with a smile, just for yourself xxxx

  6. Debra says:

    Your Uncle Junior was a wise man indeed.

  7. Vera says:

    The reason why I always come back is that you are so versatile. There are so many sides of you and it's great so see which one you are going to flash. I don't always like all of them but that is perfectly fine. XX

  8. Salley says:

    You obviously ain't just a pretty face . . . you get us thinking . .

  9. Leo says:

    Hmm seems google decided to eat my first comment – maybe they do some secret filtering … or the Chines are takign over .. anyway ..

    First of all what is beautiful – is a matter of taste and you can't argue about taste. Then there is always the distinction betwee a beautiful quilt and a beautifully done quilt and a nice fabrics quilt …

    Also – noone can always produce only beautiful things – and we all would learn so much more ffrom the mistakes (we and others make) than from the huge amount of "by popular conses" deemed perfect quilts …

    I can't say there is one quilt I'm really happy about – I know all the short comings each one of them has, I know where I took a wrong turn etc….

    I don't know where all the issues with critique come from – I never got a bad response to my quite frank critiques … I don't even get the most obvious one – which would be simply not to respond.

    Another things is the whole self-promotion going on (yes also here … ) and the use of blogs more as a marketing platform than anythign else … but I'm getting distracted there.

    As a leaving note … Commenting too positively without an explanation is almost more of an insult than a really heartfelt "what on earth were you thinking when you chose the pink adn the orange for the quilt?"

  10. Pat says:

    Yep, I'm guilty of over using superlatives, but what the heck! I, too, love sparkly, shiny, bright, and happy. I guess the Bell Curve has a place outside of the classroom. 😀

  11. Regina says:

    I teach quilting…there I said it. Now does that make me more able to judge beauty or talent than the next person? Of course not, because Leo's second paragraph is certainly true. But if I see obvious issues in technique I will try to comment privately for instruction and constructive criticism. I haven't got all the answers and neither has anyone else. But quilters are a community of artists and most of us welcome help with our techniques. So if you have a comment, make it constructive. If you don't like something, just say it's not to your taste and leave it at that! Love you, Molli!

  12. Katy Cameron says:

    Aww, man, I want to be related to Grandma Sparkles and get all those pies! Your Uncle Junior was obviously onto something though, not least because she'd keep giving him pies in an effort to prove she'd improved ;o)

    Something you said about the diluted truth tea brought to mind a girl I was at school with. As a slight background, in the UK we do national exams at 16 and 18 which are used as benchmarks for jobs or, if you're that way inclined, entry into uni and college courses (college being inferior to uni as they can only grant diplomas, not degrees, and usually have lower entry requirements and courses in more vocational subjects) Between 16 and 18 we study a small number of subjects compared to pre-16, usually only 3-4, with the idea that they will lead into the degree/college course that we desire.

    One of my classes was Art. I was theoretically a science and computer geek, but I'd loved doing 'design' at the age 16 exams and did very well at it (it was the hands on making stuff as opposed to painting.drawing stuff course), however my school only offered Art at the age 18 exams, so I was encouraged into that instead. In my class was a girl who was absolutely amazing at doing pen and ink cartoon and caricature drawings. She had praise heaped upon her by our rather over-awed teachers, but no-one would ever suggest that she might want to expand beyond her very limited sphere, even though it might have helped to improve her as an artist. With that very limited, but excellent portfolio she was accepted into the best art school in the UK straight out of school – this was practically unheard of, as you generally had to do a foundation year at college first to, funnily enough, embrace a whole range of artistic endeavours to find your speciality. She dropped out less than a year into the course because all of a sudden people had started to properly critique her and suggest improvements to her work. As far as I can tell she hasn't worked in art since.

    I suppose there are several takeaways here – 1. You are never too good at something that someone can't offer suggestions for improvement, and 2. If you build someone up to believe they're brilliant and then encourage them into an arena with competition, they may end up coming to earth with a very large thump if someone then bursts that bubble, even with constructive criticism.

    Of course saying all that, I'm rather guilty of the whole 'how fab' thing at times, although I did help Kerry (comment #4) ;o)

  13. Your Truth Tea posts always get me thinking… I do my best to give honest feedback when directly asked, but I find myself more and more giving encouragement when I feel like that's what the blogger is looking for with a self-deprecating commentary. I like the supportive and encouraging aspect of the on-line quilt world and I fully embrace the idea of "Make what makes you happy"….even if it's not à la mode. And that's my truth! 🙂

  14. I really enjoyed this post! I really try to be very honest in giving my opinion without hurting. If something is so-so I try to find something positive to say without lying.
    I am so glad I found your blog, I am looking forward to reading more about you and your quilts!

Spill the truth tea.