Quilt Festival Houston 2017!

So happy to be in Houston, TX again for International Quilt Festival. It’s a lovely feeling to be standing

in freont of your own quilt -here my East/West - on the floor amid this gathering  of the best quilts in the country!p

Traditional quilts, art quilts, contemporary, modern -they are all here in abundance in the 

World of Beauty IQA Judged Show. And then the Special Exhibits from all around the world bring 

more of the best of the best to Houston.

A highlight for me was seeing all of the Cherrywood Van Gogh Challenge jquilts displayed together for

the first time. Here I am with my “Starry” and below are shots of the exhibit all hung together on 

A back wall of the exhibit space. A symphony of art in shades of blues and provencale influenced yellows. 

The exhibit got a lot of attention and the newly published book sold out by the second day of the show!

Meeting up with friends is always a happy part of the Houston experience. 

Three happy travelers -Robin, Roberta and myself in a  serendipitous reunion of our January trip to Japan on a textile

 tour with Susan Ball Faeder’s Quilters Express to Japan. Alison was also in Houston, but didn’t make it into the selfie!

And fellow artist and Fiber Fanatic member Sherry Kleinman was at the show with her

Daughter from New York. Both Sherry’s pieces in the World Of Beauty competition were representations 

of her grandchildren.

           Maria Shell who visited and taught at my quilt guild Westside Quilters in LA just last week won a  third lace prize in the abstract category! We celebrated with her over dinner on Thursday night!

               

Viewing the all the quilts and the over 1100 vendors is quite a proposition. I made it to half the vendors, 

but saw all the quilts on display. I was hampered slightly by a small accident  stepping unexpectantly off a

curb and severely wrenching my knee on the evening of my third day which resulted in a lot of ice packs 

and  ibuprofen in our very lovely room at the Four Seasons. 

So I missed my Saturday class and some vendors, but I’d spent  more than enough money, anyway!

Home to LA tomorrow... can’t wait for next time!

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Dresses made from acrylic paint? Faux Patisserie As Sculpture?

See these gorgeous lacy wedding dresses on view right now at the Palm Desert Museum in Rancho Mirage California?  Would you in a million years think they were completely made with acrylic paint? Sculptress Pat Lash manipulates acrylic paint in a multitude of amazing ways to make free standing sculptures in the round. She brushes out sheets of paint, forms paint in lace inspired silicone molds and extrudes specially formulated paint through cake decorating nozzles (her father was a professional baker!) to form these haunting figures sculptures then artfully embellished with crystals, pearls and beads.

She takes the cake decorating technique even further to fashion miniature and full size pastry confections which are highly collectible and have been shown at museums such as New York’s MOMA. 

Absolutely amazing, beautifully haunting! The perfect cap to a few days away with my husband and friends in Palm Desert working on quilting projects, relaxing by the pool and eating a lot of great food.  An extra treat - a trip up the mountain to the little village of Idyllwild in the pines for the local guild quilt show. 

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Film Strip Quilts at Bergamot Station

My friend Roberta Walley took me on yet another adventure yesterday to Bergamot Station, a cluster of art galleries in the old Santa Monica Red Car Trolley stop now next door to the brand new and modern Metro Line Station. 

The Shoshana Wayne Gallery is showing a collection of very usual Quilts  "Hands At Work" by Sabrina Gschwandtner. The artist  features traditional quilt designs , but instead of fabric, the Quilts are pieced from hundreds of 16 mm film strips of educational films deaccessioned from the collection of the Fashion Institute of Technology. If you look closely and carefully you can see the film frames filled with images of hands knitting, quilting, embroidering and dyeing.  They are all fitted together into quilt blocks sewn together with zigzag stitches on a sewing machine.  Absolutely fascinating, colorful, inspiring and bringing those traditional Quilts into a very modern graphic setting.  

The show continues at the Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404 through August 29th. If you are n the SoCal area, Go!

Check out Nina Marie Sayre's Off The Wall Fridays! 

More Untethered Thread...

My quilt "Swan Song" was just returned from the Untethered Thread exhibit that ran last month at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts. Another great SAQA Southern California/Nevada Regional exhibit . So many talented quilt artists in our neighborhood. Thank you Laura Bisagna for organizing this wonderful opportunity.

When I went down to San Diego county to view, I filmed bits of pieces of the show. I've now put it together- my first attempt with iMovie..... not great but here is the finished product.  Hope you enjoy it and get a little flavor of this wonderful venue for displaying Art Quilts.

"Untethered Thread" June, 2017

On another happy note... Thursday brought some very happy news from Houston! My piece "East/West" has been named a Finalist in the IQA show World of Beauty at International Quilt Festival Houston. It will be winging its way to Texas next week.  The largest in the US, Quilt Festival runs November 1-5 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Downtown Houston. I'm thinking of going this year, so maybe I'll see you there!

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"Untethered Thread" June 1 -24 at Poway Center for the Performing Arts

I'm very happy to be included in the SAQA SoCal/Nevada regional exhibit "Untethered Thread" which opened June 1 and will continue until June 24th. 

Here I am with my piece in the exhibit "Swan Song". It was  great to see this piece again - it's been traveling around the country with Sacred Threads 2015 for almost two years! 

It's a gorgeous venue with both a downstairs and upstairs gallery wall perfect for viewing art.     Poway is a lovely bit of Southern California in northern San Diego County and well worth a visit. This exhibit is a great opportunity to enjoy the work of local California textile artists.

Japan, January 2017

I've been home from my Japan tour since the end of January, but have just recently plowed through all my photos.  It was a wonderful two weeks with Quilters Express to Japan and our tour leader Susan Ball Faeder. She's been doing this for over 25 years and  through her myriad private contacts in the Japanese textile world we were privileged to experience things few regular tourists ever can.
So many thanks to my friend, fellow artist and traveling companion Roberta Walley for encouraging me to come along!

We started with Tokyo and the Tokyo Quilt Show - the largest in the world in the Tokyo Dome baseball stadium. What a crowded,  jostling experience. It seemed that every woman in Japan was there! Fabulous quilts, wonderful, inventive exhibits and amazing fabrics and hand made items and notions for sale. So many shopping opportunities! I did my part.

We toured amazing Shinto Shrines and Buddhist temples in Tokyo and Kyoto

Enjoyed textile museums and private collections 

Saw modern Japanese textiles and fashion....

Ate glorious food so beautifully presented! 

Figured out a whole new world of electronic toilets

In  the village of Arimatsu we watched local artists practice the art of Shibori dyeing

And in Kyoto we spent a morning learning the art of stencil dyeing

So much more to say and too many photos  - maybe in some future posts.

Let's just say I hope to go back! 

The trip has already yielded inspiration... 

A purchased indigo dyed cotton banner of the Moon Rabbit mounted with more 

Japanese indigo textiles 

A quilt from my photo of the garden at the Heian Shinto Shrine, Kyoto.