Wednesday, April 27, 2016

SAQA CT April 9, 2016 Meeting Minutes


Another fantastic meeting! This was the first regional meeting for Christina and me to “fly solo” as your new co-reps, and we thank you for your patience with us. As I stated repeatedly over the course of the meeting – you are an amazing group of women [and Dwight] and we are so very lucky to be working with all of you.
Wanda Seldon, member of the CT-FAC and a board member of the Windsor Art Center, opened out meeting by welcoming the 38 of us to the exhibit and space, with an additional encouragement to become a member of the Windsor Art Center, especially with a Members’ Exhibition coming up!

We had a brief overview of the SAQA conference in Philadelphia. Highlights were:
- The opportunity to meet art quilters of all different levels and styles, along with their varied life stories and unique perspectives is absolutely invigorating.
- The encouragement that the “big names” in quilting have rough spots and have to just keep working at it, just like the rest of us.
- The idea to work BIG and the value to working in a series. Working in a series can mean many things: one thought is to make a piece, then change just one thing [color OR line OR shape OR scale OR…] that wasn’t working and try it again. Then change a different thing and try it again. Then change a different thing, or go back and if you chose A instead of B, go back and choose B this time.

At which point, Christina put out a call for a regional Visioning Project to work in a series. Anyone looking to work in an encouraging small group setting [and especially anyone looking to volunteer to wrangle such a group] toward a goal of pushing your work forward through working in a series should email Christina.

We also posed the call for a large open space for our summer regional meeting – we’re hoping to have a vendor/tag sale/stash swap day, by request from the membership. We have had a few of you mention some ideas – but are always open to more options for this and other meetings in the future.

Betty Warner is still open to accepting more pieces for our regional Trunk Show. Pieces should be 6x10 and will be mounted to a black backing board and inserted into a clear sleeve. Details are on the Trunk Show tab of our blog.

Cathy Smith mentioned the upcoming Quilting and Fiber Arts one day event, June 11th from 10a-4p at the Windham Textile Museum.

As usual, we saw some stunning pieces from many members during everyone’s favorite, Show and Tell. A few notable links are:
-Barb McKie was published in a fantastic multi-page spread in issue 17.5 of the Australian Patchwork and Stitches Magazine and will be exhibiting in the International Quilt Invitational Exhibition at the Brigham City Museum, UT from June 17 – August 31, 2016.
- Barbara Dieroff mentioned “Connecticut Scissorhands”, the Connecticut chapter of Surface Design Associates exhibition at the Gallery on the Green [Dowd Avenue in Canton CT], from April 22 through May 22. The gallery is open Fri, Sat, Sun from 1-5p.
- Dawn Allen has her first solo show, “Larger Than Life Flowers”, at Black Birch Vineyards in Southampton MA for August and September [opening reception Aug 5th], and showed her new technique of digitally printing colorful flower petals she contructed and manipulated on the computer, through Spoonflower.
- Dwight Lopes showed off some fancy marbling using Golden fluid acrylic, and pieces then constructed using Sew Easy curves quilting method .
- Mickey Lawler recently filmed an online class. It’s not live yet, but keep an eye out for it on iQuilt.
-Someone mentioned Brookside Quiltworks, a quilt shop in Egremont MA as a interesting place to exhibit.
A few other links to consider – CAFE for calls to entry,  Fiber Art Calls for Entry, Fiber Art Now is looking for Emerging Artists [working in fiber less than 5 years], and Laurie Russman mentioned her success with Quilt Canada.

Thank you so much to the Connecticut Fiber Arts Collective for a beautiful show and energizing Artists’ Talk.
- Diane Cadrain discussed about her experiences in Thailand, represented in “Buddhist Temple II” and “Buddhist Temple I”.
- Carol Eaton mentioned her process of “Walking with Sharon” in producing “Leaf Study I”.
- Karen Loprete showed us “Jazz It Up”.
- Carol Vinick explained “Roots and Wings”, a representation of her two daughters, with a beautiful hidden image of her and her husband.
- Linda Martin spoke of her collaged portrait of a Native American, “Righteous Spirit”, made up of over 1,000 pieces!
- Christina Blais gave us chills with her discussion of her Rosa Parks piece, “Determination”.
- Mary Lachman briefed us on the evolution of her work “Spiraling Out”.
- Wanda Seldon explained the joy and jubilation of her Soulful Journey, as depicted in “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow”.

Final notes: the CT Piecemakers Quilt Guild show was stunning, especially the SAQA-CT invitational exhibit. Thank you to the members who had pieces in it. We had a wonderful cross-section of styles represented, and viewers gushed about how much talent you all possess. I was SO proud of you! And an additional thank you to Laureen Pekar and Barbara Dieroff for inviting us and helping coordinate the efforts to get us together and hung.

Lastly, as mentioned a few times before, I am in the very slow process of reworking the SAQA-CT blog. So far, I’ve updated the tab of current members. Double-check that you are listed, spelled correctly, and your website or blog is linked. If any of these is off, let me know! It’s likely that your membership has expired and/or your information as it is in the SAQA database is incorrect or incomplete. Also - if I listed you as a second state and you are only a CT member, I went solely on mailing addresses thus far and have not gone back with due diligence to confirming official status. In any case, email me any changes, and I’ll make corrections.

Thank you again to all of our regional members, for your passion for art quilts and your enthusiasm for SAQA. You are such a joy!

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