SAQA - Redirecting the Ordinary

Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) is a "non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development, documentation, and publications."  One of several traveling exhibitions, "Redirecting the Ordinary is about turning things around, upside down, inside out, backwards, or how even a minuscule course correction can charge up the humdrum, turn the common into the uncommon, and make the expected unexpected."  This exhibit is currently touring with the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo and was one of our favorites at the Fredericksburg show.  Here is a sampling of these extra-ordinary quilts.  You can see the whole exhibit online on the SAQA website.  Enjoy the show!

Old Sink by Val Mayse of Seattle, WA.  Circles, squares and crosses are powerful symbols found in an ordinary object.

Forke Family Secrets by Ann Turley of Fallbrooke, CA.  Like many real families, the forks are a bit unbalanced and dysfunctional.

Turning Bottles into Stained Glass by Sara Sharp of Austin, TX. Ordinary bottles filled with colored liquids transform a gray winter day.

Have a Cup by Joan Dyer of Grass Valley, CA.  A simple cup imagined in multiple ways.

Sheer Delight by Denise Oyama Miller of Freemont, CA.  Good scissors are a critical tool for textile artists.

A Close Shave by Helen Godden of Canberra, Australia.  Colored pencil shavings conjure up visions of ballerina skirts and sea shells.

Memories by Jennifer Day of Santa Fe, NM.  A woman sits in her wheelchair in a doorway in Havana, Cuba.

9:29 in the Morning by Gillian Cooper of Balfron, Stirlingshire, UK.  Photos of the ground were taken with every 37th step on a morning walk.