Meeting Minutes - April 8

We had a terrific joint meeting with our regional cohort of Surface Design Association, including their representative Ellen Schiffman on Saturday, April 8, 2017. There were 33 SAQA members and 13 SDA members (with approx 10 SAQA members also members of SDA!) in attendance at Guilford Art Center.

Our first order of business was to acknowledge our gracious host location, Guilford Art Center, and the stunning photography exhibit on display. We also noted the beautiful quilt hanging in the entryway, which was donated by Sisters in Cloth, to be raffled off as a fundraiser for the Art Center. Raffle tickets are still available, so be sure to stop in the gift shop Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 12-4pm to pick up one, or a few! The final drawing will be at the Craft Expo in mid-July.

We had a brief intro to SAQA and SDA. SDA has been meeting regionally for about three years now. They have a regular newsletter, Facebook page, workshops (usually open exclusively to SDA members, due to space and material constraints), movie nights, and exhibitions (this fall, they’ll be in River Street Gallery in New Haven). Most importantly, they hold a variety activities to make the connections among its members.

Cathy Smith spoke briefly about the upcoming Textile Duo event at the Windham Textile & History Museum: June 10 will be Quilting and Fiber Arts and June 17 will be Spin Weave Knit. There will be a variety of speakers, vendors and demos (including a display of one of SAQA’s traveling trunks!). Also featured will be the month-long exhibition “Locally Inspired”, which will include pieces from some of our members. Our next regional meeting will coincide with the closing reception, on SATURDAY, JULY 1 (411 Main Street, Willimantic CT).

Cathy also mentioned that she is helping to organize a Fiber Arts exhibition at Gallery 53 for April 2018. Anyone interested in assisting her should contact her directly.

We then broke into 6 small groups of mixed membership, to share our Show and Tell pieces and stories. After carefully coordinating the timing, we broke for a brief bite to eat. We reconvened for the real treat of the day, our fabulous speaker (who just happens to be a regional SAQA member and, oh yeah, SAQA’s executive director), Martha Sielman.

In 2004, Martha became the executive director of SAQA, and at the time, our Connecticut region had a whopping SIX members. Over the years, she has had the joy of working toward and watching the organization, and our region, grow, as well as the overall awareness of and interest in art quilts start to take off. As both a result of that growth as well as a factor in it, Martha pitched, and authored, Masters: Art Quilts...then a volume 2...then a short series of specific topical books (The Natural World, People and Portraits) within the Art Quilts realm. In preparation for her newest book, Abstract and Geometric, she garnered over 1700 (!) entries to sift through and distill into a single volume. Drawing from that wealth of imagery and insight, she spoke to us on the Top Ten Trends in Fiber Art. It is a talk she has given on numerous occasions over the years, and yet it is always different.

The most significant change over the years has been COLOR. In the late ’80s, deep jewel tones were all the rage. What’s pretty current right now are golden browns/yellows/reds, though there seems to be a shifting tide toward stark black and white. But the real trend that coming through is (1) “Crayola colors” - bright, vivid, saturated primary colors.

Another feature to consider in art quilts is how they are quilted. There seem to be two divergent trends: (2) very, very dense quilting, such as in tiny matchstick patterning or a piece completely covered in stitching shapes, such as circles, with little spacing, and (3) handwork, also often dense, frequently in heavy thread to really showcase the maker’s hand and the process very visually clear in the final piece.

Other things she’s noticed gaining popularity:
(4) Machine-worked thread painting - covering the entire surface in stitching in order to create the coloring of the imagery.

(5) Use of sheers - often playing with the light and/or perspective of the viewer.

(6) Found fabrics - frequently stemming from environmental ethics of reuse, but also for memorial tributes and other purposes.

(7) Whole cloth quilts have been around forever, but it’s being done in new ways. Some examples shown were the incorporation of airbrushing, stencils, and dye-painting. One interesting comment from an artist she interviewed mentioned that the quilting catches light very differently than if the painting were just a flat unquilted piece.

(8) Inkjet and digital printing.

Like color, the use of embellishments has changed over the years. While once favored to be completely encrusted with bling, the current trends lean towards a more restrained and minimal use these days. Embellishments that are gaining in popularity are (9) text and (10) fabric manipulation, such as slashing, gathers, and dangling threads.

The whole presentation showed us tons of stunning, inspirational works by artists from all over the world. Most of the images are in Martha’s newest book, so I definitely encourage you to check it out and get your copy today!

Thank you to Martha for giving such an incredible talk, to Ellen and SDA for joining us, to Guilford Art Center for hosting our meeting, and always always, to you, the members of our region for showing up, making the work, and being passionate about art quilts. We hope to see you at our next meeting (if not sooner!).

Creative Embellishments

I happened upon Rodale's Successful Quilting Library: Creative Embellishments, edited by Darra Duffy Williamson at my dayjob, and what a treat! While many of the quilts in the book aren't really my speed, there are so many fascinating tips on various embellishments - there's bound to be at least one you don't already know about. The most mind-blowing, why-didnt-I-think-of-that for me was: to attach shells without holes to your quilt, use epoxy glue to adhere it to a small shank-type button, then, when it's dry, sew it right on!

I hope you can find a copy in your local library (or even hiding among your own home library!). It's a great read.

In the Redding Pilot

A terrific article on one of our members (and  panelist at our October 2016 meeting), Laurie Russman: http://www.thereddingpilot.com/2017/03/09/reddingite-finds-her-stitch-in-fine-art-quilts/

Nor'Easter at NBMAA

Congratulations to Phyllis Small and Carol Vinick for the acceptance of their pieces into the New Britain Museum of American Art's 47th Annual Juried Members Exhibition, Nor’Easter! The awards reception is Sunday, April 30, 2017 from 1-2:30 p.m. and the show runs from April 29 - May 28, 2017.

Brown and Sharpe by Phyllis Small

United We Stand by Carol Vinick

Images at the Met

Quilt, calamanco (collection of The Met)

Just came across this interesting tidbit, related to our recent meeting on copyright:
The Met recently announced their new Open Access policy, which allows the use of images from its collection that are within the public domain, free of charge and without specific permission from the museum.
More information, and a link to their collection, is available here.

Textile Posters!

Congratulations to Christina Blais and Margaret Phillips on their first national exhibitions! Their pieces were juried into SAQA's Textile Posters:

Christina Blais (Connecticut, USA) - Chien Blond

Margaret Phillips (Connecticut, USA) - No More Labels: A Plea for Civil Discourse

"Water is Life" at the New England Quilt Museum

Joan Blade Johnson, a Hampton resident and fiber artist, will display her art quilt at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts from February 15 - April 29 of this year.  She is one of 40 art quilters chosen to participate in the exhibition “Water is Life: Clean Water and Its Impact on the Lives of Women and Girls around the World,” which will be the featured exhibit at the Museum (http://nequiltmuseum.org/index.html) during this period.

                  Organized by the Rhode Island non-profit Quilt for Change (www.quiltforchange.org) and Rome, Italy-based American Exchange Rome, “Water is Life” highlights the importance of consistent access to clean water in the lives of millions of women around the world and brings attention to the many countries whose populations face a struggle for clean water on a daily basis.  Without clean water, millions of women are deprived of the opportunity to live, safe, healthy lives, to obtain an education, find jobs, care for their families, and contribute to their societies.  Water is Life was organized to help celebrate the United Nations’ annual “World Water Day,” which is commemorated every year March 22  in recognition of the importance of clean water to health, well-being and prosperity, especially for women and children.  Water is Life is the fifth quilt show to be displayed at UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, where diplomats, policy makers and thousands of visitors to the UN’s headquarters are exposed to the messages of concern and support for women’s empowerment embodied in these quilts. According to Allison Wilbur, Executive Director of Quilt for Change, participating quilters are artists who bring their subject matter to life through their talent and compassion. 

                  After its debut in Geneva, which was sponsored by the U.S. diplomatic mission to the United Nations, “Water is Life” traveled to Rome for exhibition at the Scuderie Aldobrandini in Frascati, Italy last September.  Crossing the Atlantic, the quilts were on display in Houston, Texas in November during the Houston International Quilt Festival, which welcomes more than 50,000 visitors.   Once the exhibition at the New England Quilt museum finishes, the quilts will tour at six major quilt shows across the country with the Mancuso Show Quilt Festivals (http://www.quiltfest.com).

                  For more information on the exhibit, visit www.quiltforchange.org, and on Facebook at Quilt for Change/Quilt Challenge or http://www.american-exchange-rome.org/usunquiltexhibit2016/.