Facade Exhibit

Studio Art Quilt Associates Regional NC/VA group is concluding an exhibit at the Petersburg Area Art League, Petersburg, VA.  The theme was "Facade", which could be interpreted in multiple ways from architectural fronts, to the portrayal of emotions, or the masks we wear.  The quilts in this exhibit covered the gamut.  Sue's submission to this juried exhibit is "Beyond the Door", a realistic portrayal of Midhope Castle in West Lothian, Scotland.

This piece was painted on a midweight canvas fabric using a variety of textile paints, walnut ink, and Inktense paint sticks. The grasses and ferns around the steps and door are Thermofax screen prints. This was a unique project for Sue in that it was all done with paints rather than pieced fabrics.

Here are some other outstanding quilts in this exhibit.

Facade 1 by Kevin Womack

Alaska Glacier by Karin Tauber

My Mask by Sandy Curran

Reality Reflections by Paula C. Dean

Seduced by a Digital World by Jayne Bentley Gaskins

Visitor by Sharon Carrier

Silenced by Paula C. Dean

Kracken by Frances Bents

Painted Ladies by Sherry Watkins

Unfortunately, the show will be coming down on Thursday and there are no plans for additional venues. I do hope you enjoyed this glimpse of the exhibit.

SAQA Benefit Auction

It's time once again for SAQA's annual Benefit Auction. (SAQA = Studio Art Quilt Associates) Members have donated 12" square art quilts that go up for auction as the organization's main fund-raising effort.  Funds raised support SAQA's exhibitions, publications, and educational outreach.  The auction opens on September 13 and runs through October 6.  It is a reverse auction format.  On opening day, all artworks are available for $1000 each.  For the following 3 weeks, the quilts are divided into 3 groups with 1 group available each week at decreasing prices.  Read more about the auction here and view the quilts here.

You do need to create an account on Handbid in order to bid on quilts.

Sue has donated a quilt again this year, a screen printed and hand stitched piece called "Hope".

Do take a look at all the beautiful artworks available and bid if you are so inclined.  It's an opportunity to own a small artwork by well-known and upcoming artists in the world of art quilts.

Spring 2024 Exhibits

Well, it's been a few months since our last post.  Hope you've been having a productive start to the new year!  Here at PGFiber2Art we are pleased to share 2 opportunities to visit quilt exhibits if you are local to the DC area or just traveling through.  First is quilts Inspired by the Nation's Capital, an exhibit and accompanying book by Donna DeSoto that is now on display at the Barns of Rose Hill in Berryville, VA through April 27,

Sue's quilt of Gunston Hall is part of the exhibit and she was excited to see it along with the other quilts that are so much more impressive when seen in person as opposed to photos.  There are so many details and textures that simply are not picked up by a camera.

All the quilts are excellent but here are a few other favorites.

Smithsonian: Mary Livingston Ripley Garden by Diane Herbort

Lorton Reformatory by Etta McFarland

US Capitol by Miki Willa and Wahington Monument by Susan Bynum

Riverbend Park by Anna Wilard

National Mall Area by Barbara Kauffman

The book showing all the quilts also serves as a tour guide for Washington, DC and is available from Schiffer Publishing and also on Amazon.

The second exhibit is called Sew to Speak by SAQA Regional groups (Studio Art Quilt Associates) on display at BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, Md through April 21.  In this exhibit, 32 fiber artists from the Mid-Atlantic area show how they express themselves in their textile art.  Sue also has a piece in this exhibit. 

Untold Stories is a tribute to her father's World War II service.

My Mother has Alzheimer's. These last five years. is by Carly Mul.

Winter is by Sarah Entsminger

Sailing Under Watchful Eyes is by Suzette Coppage

The catalog cover features Anxiety No. 12/Traumatic brain injury by Judy Kirpich.  The catalog is available on Amazon.

Take some time during the warming spring days to visit either or both of these exhibits!

SAQA Benefit Auction

Each fall, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) holds an online benefit auction to raise money to support SAQA's exhibits, publications and educational programs.  This year's auction runs from September 14 to October 8.  over 380 pieces of quilt art, all 12" square, will be available for purchase.  This is a "reverse" auction.  Sept. 14 is diamond day, when all pieces are available for $1000.  The quilts are divided into 3 groups and the following Monday, the 1st group opens for a bid at $750. Prices drop at 2 PM each day until reaching a final price of $100 on Saturday.  The process repeats with the other 2 groups until Oct. 8.  

You can learn more about the auction here. You can view all the quilts online as well as register for Handbid which is the company handling the auction.  There are also Dream Collections available to view - groups of 8 quilts that members have chosen that have a common theme or color story.  

Sue has again contributed a quilt to the auction.  It is called "Filtered" and combines shibori/indigo dyed fabric, rusted fabric, and a cyanotype print done on a coffee filter.  It has both hand and machine stitching.  

Go to the website and check out the quilts.  Even if you choose not to bid, there's lots of inspiration and eye candy!

Blue Ridge Heron

The SAQA Regional Group of North Carolina and Virginia has mounted a new exhibit called Reflections that will debut at the Petersburg Area Art League in Virginia on July 7 and remain through August 5.  These quilts depict the rich and diverse worlds of Virginia and North Carolina including colors, shapes, textures, natural environments, structures and cultures.  Sue created her Blue Ridge Heron (18" square) for this exhibit.

The basis for this quilt is two photos that were taken at Peaks of Otter Lodge along the Blue Ridge Parkway in southern Virginia. The 2 photos were blended with an app called Image Blender to create the pattern for the quilt.

Sue started by building and quilting the background on a foundation of fusible fleece which serves as the batting.  Simple shapes and quilting were enhanced by fabric selection.  The mountain has a layer of organza fused on top to mute the colors. 

Next, the heron was added by fusing and then doing a machine satin stitch around the edges.

The next step was adding the grass and tree shape on the left.  The grass was created from a piece of shibori fabric made by Vicki Welsh of Colorways by Vicki.  (See second photo below.)  Vicki featured this quilt on her blog on July 2.

Sue started with a strip of the fabric, applied a fusible product to the back, then began cutting away the lighter parts to create the grass effect.

You can see this and the other wonderful quilts in the exhibit at Petersburg Area Art League beginning July 7.  Other venues will be announced when they are known.  

SAQA Benefit Auction

Each fall, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) holds an art quilt auction as its main fund-raising event. Proceeds support exhibitions, publications, and educational outreach. Twelve-inch square quilts are made and donated by members and then auctioned in an online event over a period of 3 weeks in September/October.  Sue recently completed and sent in her donation.

"Filtered" was made from scraps of shibori/indigo and rusted fabrics along with a cyanotype printed on a flattened coffee filter.  Both hand and machine stitching were used to quilt and embellish.

Here is the background prior to adding the cyanotype where you can see the various fabrics used, all leftovers from previous projects.

Portions were quilted with straight line machine stitching.  Other parts were enhanced with hand stitching.

Above you can see some of the hand stitched circles and a row of fly stitches across the bottom. You can also see the machine stitching that outlines the cyanotype print and a blanket stitch used around the edge.

Here is the backing with corner triangles for hanging, or alternatively a ribbon loop in the center.

And the finished piece.  Watch this blog and our other social media for notice when the auction takes place this fall.  Bidding is open to anyone.  There are always many fabulous pieces of quilt art available.

Imagination: 1 x 4

The Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) Regional groups of North Carolina/Virginia and Washington DC/Maryland/West Virginia issued a challenge last year to members to make a quilt based on the theme Imagination.  They were asked to "use their imagination to escape reality, explore thoughts and feelings, and express themselves by creating a new quilt in a format measuring one foot wide by four feet high". Approximately 70 submissions were juried by Maggie Vanderweit, selecting 50 for the exhibit. Originally intended to be an in-person exhibit, the Covid 19 pandemic altered those plans to make it a virtual exhibit that can be seen on Black Rock Center for the Arts' website now through February 20.  It will also be part of the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival's virtual show at the end of February. 

Sue's submission, The Imagination of Nature, is one of the 50 pieces selected. After considering several ideas, a piece of eco-printed fabric came to mind.  It was about 6 feet long by 1 foot wide, so easily fit the size requirements of the challenge.  It served as the "iron blanket" in making an eco-printed silk scarf; essentially, a piece of cotton that keeps the plant material in place in the printing process.  In addition to the length of cotton, there were several pieces of silk used as test prints that might be incorporated in the 1 x 4 design.

Planning began by looking at the length of fabric, measuring, auditioning potential fabrics, and selecting the portions of the print to use.  Also part of the planning was looking for quotes that tied nature and imagination together.  Two quotes were chosen and printed on Extravorganza (organza that is adhered  to a backing for use in an inkjet printer).  The original print was divided into 3 sections, with the quotes forming the divisions above and below the center portion.  Three of the silk prints were chosen and fused to pieces of silk for layering on top of the cotton.  A bird was screen printed on a color catcher (a non-woven fabric sheet used to absorb excess dye in the laundry) and added as a focal point.

Above is the center section.  Except for some machine anchor stitching, the quilting is done by hand with embroidery threads.  Some "ghost" leaves were added to the background with stitching.  

This is the top section, with the largest of the 3 silk prints. 

Above is a close-up of the bottom section.  Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.

The virtual exhibit on the Black Rock website gives you two options for viewing; one is a 3-D gallery view which is a guided tour similar to being in a real gallery.  The second option is viewing a still image of each quilt that can be enlarged for a closer view.  You can also view a separate document of the artists' statements and jurors remarks.  All of the pieces in the exhibit are for sale.  So find a comfortable spot, put on some quiet music, and enjoy a gallery tour of these beautiful quilts!

Covid19 Quilt Challenge

Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) is an international organization whose purpose is to support and expand the reach of art quilts and quilters through world-wide exhibitions.  The organization is also broken down into regional groups and local PODS. Sue belongs to the Northern Virginia POD which is part of the North Carolina/Virginia Region.  The pod issues periodic challenges and the most recent was a COVID challenge - to create a quilt inspired by the virus, whatever aspect the quilter chose and any size.  With other projects on her plate, Sue chose to make a 12" square and focus on the frequently seen image of the virus and the stay home orders issued in the first months of the pandemic.

The inspiration came from 2 things - a photo of a globe thistle that reminded her of the spikes of the virus and photos of doors taken several years ago which represented shelter.  The first part of the creative process was to turn the thistle photo into a Thermofax screen.

Cropping down to just the flower portion, changing to black and white, and then applying a filter resulted in this image used to make the screen.

Since this was representing the spikey part of the virus, Sue wanted to print this over top of a circle representing the body of the virus.  For that she turned to a stencil of  circles in various sizes. The plan included 3 different sizes of the screen, so 3 sizes of circles were needed.  The circles were stenciled first in gray, and the virus spikes printed over top in a raspberry color on a dark teal hand dyed background. This photo shows before and after the virus is printed over the circles.

Next was adding the door to represent home and shelter.  The original photo was slightly altered in photoshop and printed on fabric, then fused to the center of the square.

You'll notice another element was added here as well - some phrases often heard from the medical professionals - "wash your hands, wear a mask, 6 feet apart, disinfect, flatten the curve, social distance, stay home".  These were also screen printed onto the background. After adding the backing, the piece was quilted.

It looks like this little quilt can serve as a reminder of cautious behavior for the near future and maybe even longer. Has the pandemic inspired you to create a quilt or other fiber art?

SNaP Challenge

SNaP is an acronym for "SAQA Northern Virginia Pod" - a group of local quilters who belong to the SAQA national organization.  SAQA stands for Studio Art Quilt Associates, a national group that promotes art quilting.

The SNaP challenge was issued to the group to make a 12 inch art quilt to interpret the word "snap".  It could be whatever the word brings to mind - snapshot, a snap closure, the snap of a rubber band - you get the idea.  At our January meeting we shared our challenge pieces seen below.

 Above, we have the snap of a football, and the snap of a broken heart.

The quilt on the left represents snapchat, the quilt on the right represents snappy repartee.

We also have an awesome snapping turtle, and snapdragons (Sue's piece).

 And finally, a piece representing a snapshot.  Looks like successful pieces all around!