Seasons Greetings

Season's Greetings to all!  Wow, this is such a busy time of year and I was so busy getting ready for a Christmas get together with some of my quilting friends yesterday that I completely forgot about our blog.  I bet many of you are frantically putting those last minute touches on your holiday Christmas gifts.  If you have any hand made/ hand sewn gift ideas you would like to share with our region, just let me know.  It's always nice to try something new!
The photo below is of a lovely hand made silk pincushion with machine embroidery made by my friend Susan Foster.    Just beautiful!

So, until January,  Happy Holidays everyone and may the joy and peace that you feel in your hearts this holiday season be with you throughout the year!

Pin Cushion by Susan Foster

Good Morning!  Did anyone have a chance to check out the Quilt Trail in western North Carolina?  I know we are all art quilters and probably not ensconced in our studios making traditional quilts, but, it's hard to ignore the beauty of these barns with their beautiful quilt block decoration. The countryside is beautiful and driving around to find the barns is quite an adventure.  Anyway, I thought I'd share a few more of my favorite photos with you.  Hope you enjoy them.

I know it's getting close to Christmas and everyone is busy this time of year.  If you have some great gift idea that you would like to share with members of our region, we'd love to hear about it.
Thanks everyone!  
Oh, and don't forget that soon it will be time to submit your entries for the upcoming Southern Accents show.  Entry information can be found on the SAQA web site.

Monday Morning Inspiration.
  I am sure that most of you have heard of the North Carolina Quilt Trail, but in case you haven't, this seems to be a good time to mention it. My husband and I discovered the by accident several years ago when we were visiting our son at Appalachia State U and we were immediately hooked into trying to find them all.  Concentrated mainly in the western part of North Carolina, the quilt trail is another wonderful aspect of living in our region. It is especially appealing to me since I love seeing these old barns out in the countryside and when they are decorated with a large, beautiful, brightly colored quilt block, well wow, that's the icing on the cupcake!  Finding these barns is a treasure hunt and if you go to the mountains to find a Christmas tree this year, it would be fun to look for some of these beautiful barns.  I can see a whole series of landscape quilts featuring the quilt trail barn!  If you want to investigate further, here's a link to the Quilt Trail web page.  http://www.quilttrailswnc.org/

And, here's a few inspirational photos.  I have plenty more and am happy to share them with you during December.

And finally, let me again mention this great opportunity.  SAQA International Artist Panel Mentorship Webinar

Tuesday, December 9 at 1 pm ET

The International Artists Panel will include three international SAQA members sharing their art quilts and discussing how their creative lives are influenced by the places they live. Alicia Merrett was born and raised in Argentina and lives in the United Kingdom. Barbara Lange and Uta Lenk live in Germany. This webinar is an outstanding opportunity to learn about some of SAQA’s international members and be inspired by these talented art quilters.

Please click the following link to register. Registration is limited, but all SAQA members will have access to the full audio and video recording of the webinar on the SAQA website within a few days after the event.

https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/590156439

And as usual, if you have any news or events you would like to pass along to our regional members, let me know!

Good Monday Morning!  Well, this will be my final posting with some pictures from the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  I wish I was more organized and had written down the information for each image, but if you have ever been to Quilt Festival, you will realize that that is impossible.  There is so much going on that an entire week is barely enough time to see everything and squeeze in some shopping!  So, with that lame excuse, I am going to show a small sampling from one of the many special exhibits..........Reflections, presented by the Dinner at Eight Artists.

And here are a few quilts from the quilt competition, Art-Painted Surface.

Incognito by Melanie Marr

Painting the Town #1 by Laura Wasilowski

The Pod of Life by Nancy Sterett Martin

Yellow Mellow in Paradise by Andrea Brokenshire

Perhaps the November images have inspired you to make some fabulous quilts.  I know I am always ready to get back to work after my return from Houston.  It's very inspiring and energizing!

I also want to take this opportunity to let you know about a upcoming SAQA mentorship webinar;  SAQA International Artists Webinar, which will be presented on Dec.9th at 1pm. This is a great opportunity to learn about some of our international artists and their inspirations, and is open to all SAQA members.  Here is the link to register.  https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/590156439

As always, if you have any information you would like me to pass along to our region, just let me know.
Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

Houston International Quilt Festival

Good Morning.  Let's continue with  more pictures  of the quilts in the World of Beauty Quilt competition in Houston this year.  There are so many wonderful quilts to see and I wish I could post photos of them all but with over 500 images on my camera, that would be very difficult.  As I mentioned before, you can view the winners on the IQA web site, so here I'll  post a small sampling from the various categories.  First, are some from  Art-Naturescapes, (one of my favorites).

The Afterglow of Summer by Bizhao Zheng

WaterFall by Marianne Williamson

Heaven on Earth by Ann Harwell

Skinny Dip Falls by Eileen Williams

Autumn Freshet by Noriko Endo



And here are a few  eye catching quilts from the  Digital Imagery category.

The Water Boy by Marilyn Wall and Gail Sexton

California Dreaming by Diane Rusin Doran

Jimmy's General Store by Tonya Littmann


So that wraps it up for today.
Hope these inspire you to create!

Spotlight on the 2014 International Quilt Festival in Houston

Good Morning.  I have been eagerly awaiting this Monday morning so I could continue to share some images from the Houston Quilt Festival that are not on the winners page but are all pretty amazing works of art.
One of the fun things about the Houston show is the variety of special exhibits.  There were over 40 different special exhibits and here are a few shots of one the was fun and lighthearted.

 I really don't envy the judges their job.  With so many excellent and innovative quilts, the selection of the prize winners must be difficult.

Here is an example of a very wonderful competition quilt from the embellishment category.  It is all designed with buttons.

Red Sunflower by Susan Bianchi

These quilts are some competition quilts from the Art-People, Portraits, and Figures category.

I Love You More! by Laurie Mayo

Chasing Bubbles by Hiroko Miyama and Masanobu Miyama

My Son by Chi Chen Wen

Darn, I can't find where i wrote the title and maker of this quilt.....sorry.

The Flowers Which Bloom Someday by Kumiko Ishii

 I'll post more next week.. Until then, if you have any news to share with other members from our SAQA region, let me know!

Good Morning Everyone,
Well, back from Quilt Market and Festival in Houston, and what a whirlwind of activity it was!  If you have never been to Quilt Festival, I would highly recommend that you put it on your list of things to do and places to go.  There are thousands of quilts to see and they are so inspirational.  There is something for everyone; from traditional, antique, and modern quilts, to abstract and realistic art quilts.  There are classes and continuous free demos (open studios) and mini lectures.  One of the highlights this year was NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg who gave a talk and slide show about her experience of quilting in space.  This year celebrated 40 years of great quilts with their Ruby Jubilee exhibit, and wow, it was spectacular!

You can see the winners from IQA's 2014 A World of Beauty quilt festival at.
http://www.quilts.org/winners.html

Meanwhile, I'd like to leave you with some pictures of some other quilts that you may not get to see on the web page.  I think I took over 500 pictures so I obviously can't post them all, but during this month I'll try to post a small sampling.

Red & White by the Numbers by Barbara Black

Ruby Jubilee Exhibit

Here are a few from the Pictorial category.

.

I could just kick myself for not writing down the name of the artist of this breathtaking quilt.  I was tempted to not show it for that reason, but it is too beautiful not to include.  Sorry

Royal Thistle by Helena Scheffer and Marion Perrault

Maui Gold by Karen Donobedian

The Pelican Sisters by Eileen Williams

Climate Change by Ann Harwell

Ole' #9 by Donna Severance

Droopy Dawg by Carol Cote

So, that's it for now.  Check the blog for more pictures next week.   And, as always, Let me hear from you, especially if you have a special event or announcement or anything at all you would like to share!

photographing your art quilts

Oops...somehow I missed posting this last week.  Must of had one of those moments!
Good Morning Everyone.  I am getting excited about my upcoming trip to Houston to attend the International Quilt Festival and that got me thinking about all the beautiful quilts I am going to see and about how difficult the juried selection process must be and that lead me to the main topic of today; photographing your quilts.
I have heard a lot about that topic lately and am always amazed when I hear about art quilters submitting photos for  selection in a show, or for publication in a magazine, or for a juried/curated art quilt exhibition that are out of focus, show a distracting background, hands, feet, etc., or even worse, do not show the whole quilt but have it artfully draped over a chair or railing for example, or have shadows over some of the image, etc, etc etc.  Right away you have pretty much eliminated your work from being accepted if you do not submit a good photo.  What else do jurors have to go by except the photo you have sent?  We devote so much time to our passion of creating our quilts, why not spend time on the very important step of photographing your quilt and documenting your work.  Even if you do not plan on submitting something right away, make it a habit to take quality photos of each and every quilt you make.
There have been many articles and blogs about how to take good photos of your quilts and I am giving you links to some of the recent information I have come across.
First, the SAQA rep from MA/RI, Sue Bleiweiss wrote a very good article on their regional news blog and has graciously consented to sharing it with everyone.  Here is the link
http://ma-risaqa.blogspot.com/2014/08/lets-talk-photography.html?showComment=1407618851410&m=1
 Also, Nanette Zeller, President of PAQA-S recently posted some very good advice and links about photographing your quilts and is pleased to share that information.
http://artwithaneedle.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/the-jurors-advice.html
and
http://serendipitypatchwork.com.au/blog/2014/04/05/living-colour-selection-process/

These are all great links full of very useful information and since this is getting on the long(ish) side, I'll end here, but next week I'll try to post the step by step process I use so if you have had problems in the past, this might help.

Meanwhile, I want to end with a few photos of Fall:  Cotton Fields!  They are in full bloom now with the cotton bolls just bursting out.  Beautiful!  Don't you want to just reach out and touch that cotton!

cotton fields

Cotton Field (photoshopped) from Hwy24 NC

cotton field on Hwy 17 in NC