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!

Inspired by a Painting Challenge

Fiber Visions is the new name of Sue's art quilt group that meets monthly, for the last year via Zoom.  The inability to meet in person has not stopped the group from completing a new challenge. Last December, member Terry issued a challenge to create a quilt inspired by a painting.  The selected painting is called Skiffs by Gustave Caillebotte which is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. It was painted in 1877 and exhibited at the 4th impressionist exhibition in 1879.

The only guideline was a height of 24 inches.  Other than that, quilts could be any width, landscape or portrait, or irregular in shape.  Photos of the finished quilts were to be submitted by April 20 and the results were revealed to the group in a slide show at the May 5 meeting.  Nine quilters participated, with one person submitting 3 quilts.  Inspiration could be taken from any aspect on the painting - colors, shapes, mood, textures.  Following are the interpretations of the Fiber Visions artists.

Linda Cooper - Serenity

Linda drew inspiration from the skiff shape when designing her flower and the oars provided inspiration for the yellow leaves

Willa Downes - Crew Practice on the Occoquan

Willa's daughter rowed in high school and college and coached a college team for a couple of years. As soon as she saw the painting she knew she had to put her rowing in the quilt. 

Lisa Greisen - Fleeing the Dark

Lisa was initially drawn to the turquoise and orange flecks in the water and wanted to create a watery effect and the movement of the water. But the more she looked at this painting through the gloomy days of winter, she felt that the trees in the background were overshadowing and ominous and that the skiffs were fleeing from that darkness. Hence, the name sprung from that.

Janet Palfey - Movement

Janet was inspired by the stripe-y reflections in the water and the shapes of the paddle blades. She tried to use a similar color pallet of striped, commercial cotton fabrics to show movement, placing the stripes horizontally to indicate calmer sections. She quilted the lower 2/3 at a 20 degree angle - the same as the paddle in the foreground of Caillebotte’s painting.

Terry Peckarsky - Take Me to the River

The colors in Caillebotte's Skiffs inspired Terry to play with the analogous color scheme using Katie Pasquini Masopust's Artful Log Cabin technique for an abstract response to the painting.

Terry Peckarsky - Local Motion

Terry was fascinated by the texture of the water in Caillebotte's Skiffs, so attempted to recreate the artist's brushstrokes in small rectangles of fabric. Her photo of a single rower on the C&O canal seemed to be right at home.

Terry Peckarsky - Let's Row

Upturned canoes at the lake near Terry's home seem poised to get in the water. She altered the photo before printing on fabric and quilted it tightly. She printed the words of a French folk song about "mon petit joli bateau," or "my pretty little boat," as a reference to the French painter's Yerres River. The wavy flanges and the three-dimensional pinwheels suggest the movement of the water and the paddles of the oars on the highly textured water.

Susan Price - Ripples

The cool blue-greens in Skiffs by Gustave Caillebotte were Sue's inspiration for this challenge. If you look at pieces displayed on her design wall, you’ll see that this is a color she uses a lot! For this challenge, she decided to try to make an abstract version of the painting. Her goal was to convey a feeling of tranquility reflecting the gentle ripples in the water.

Bonnie Rhoby - Skiffs Texturized

Stepping out of her usual realistic work Bonnie wanted to capture the texture of the painting and still relay to the viewer the overall essence of the subject. She used various styles of yarn that were either hand stitched or machine stitched. Of course there had to be some needle turn appliqué.

Barbara Sherwood - Lazy River

Barb was inspired by the gently flowing waters in the photo. She used the following materials: Cotton fabric and thread, wool felt batting.

Barbara Wise - Floating

Elements of the piece that inspired Barbara are the colors blue, green, grey, and yellow. Keeping within her signature style but using geometric shapes, she tells an abstract story of falling leaves on water. Background squares are painted, rectangular tree is a monoprint, and square leaves are fabric dyed with turmeric.

Here's a look at all the pieces together.  As with our last challenge, it is a cohesive group, tied together by color, shape and movement.  We did a great job, didn't we?  It's always fun and interesting to see everyone's interpretation and how our individual styles interact with each other. 

 

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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!