Pokey : Quilt National

It's a Wrap! QA TV Series 500 just completed taping...

Pokey — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:44:00 GMT

I've just returned home from Cleveland where we taped our next series of QA TV (airing end of December). This new season promises to be a strong one! Not only did we tape some fabulous segments at International Quilt Festival/Chicago this past April, but we had some rather talented guests joining us on the set this past week.

Some pictures:

No, this is not the new host of Quilting Arts (despite her perfect teeth and colorful disposition). This is a piece by Susan Else, entitled "Nothing to Fear." It's part of the current Quilt National exhibit, and we were fortunate enough to have Kathleen Dawson of the Dairy Barn Arts Center come and bring along some pieces to share.

Kathleen Dawson and I in front of Kathy York's Quilt National quilt: "Little Fishes in the Big City."

Artist (and newest board member to SAQA) Carol Taylor and I pose in front of one of her quilts featuring her narrow piecing technique. Carol also taped a QA Workshop with us.

Jeanne Delpit of Bernina joined me for two segments and she was on hand all week to help artists unfamiliar with Bernina machines to sew on them. Jeanne was such a great help and I am so glad Bernina is the show's sewing machine sponsor! Those babies simply purr...

Beryl Taylor appeared in Season One and I was so glad to have her back! She also taped a workshop, the first in our series of Cloth Paper Scissors workshops. Her mixed-media and creative embroidery work were dazzling (as usual).

Liz DeBellis and I pose before taping her collograph printing segment. Liz is an elementary school art teacher and Quilt National artist, too. Pretty nifty accomplishment for someone under the age of 25!

Another Quilt National artist, Sue Cavanaugh joined me to demonstrate several shibori techniques. (She'll also be featured in an upcoming issue of Quilting Arts.)

Amy Milne of The Alliance for American Quilts, Liz DeBellis, and Michele Muska of Wrights chumming it up in the green room.

Paula Prass, fabric designer for Michael Miller fabrics, came to show us how she makes her framed art quilts. (No, it was not intentional that we coordinate so well with the fabrics in front of us!)

Sometimes I make funny faces on QA TV...and after we finish a segment the director likes to leave those stills on the green room tv to poke fun at me!

Luana Rubin, founder of eQuilter and managing editor extraordinaire, Helen Gregory, smile for me in the green room. Luana taped two very interesting segments with us.

My friend Natalya Aikens came back to tape not just a QA TV segment but a really fabulous workshop, too. Little known fact: She worked on the set as a costume designer for HBO's "Sex and the City."

And yes, I did return to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to see "From Asbury Park to the Promised Land," the special Springsteen exhibit. If you are in the Cleveland area anytime soon, you really must go see this exhibit. And it may look like I'm making an obscene gesture, but I'm actually giving my "hang loose" sign. (What cracks me up about this picture is the woman to the right laughing at me...)

I am afraid those are all the pictures I have of this taping from my camera, but there were many more talented guests! I want to give a special thanks to the show sponsors who make QA TV possible: Interweave, Bernina, Sulky of America, Michael Miller Fabrics, Alexander Henry, Art Gallery Fabrics, eQuilter, Wrights, Electric Quilt Company, Kaleidoscope Collections, Cedar Canyon Textiles, The Warm Company, JT Trading, Hinterberg Designs, and Rowenta. Also a heartfelt thank you to producer Kathie Stull and her assistant, Katherine Lamencusa!!

Other guests who blogged about their experience taping QA TV:

Alma de la Melena Cox

Brief SAQA Conference/ Quilt National Recap

Pokey — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:24:00 GMT

I recently returned from the annual SAQA conference that took place in Athens, Ohio on the Ohio University campus, and what an incredible time! For those who are unfamiliar with SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates), it is the non-profit organization to belong to if you are an art quilter (or aspire to be an art quilter). I am honored to be a Board member of SAQA, and strongly encourage you to join if you aren’t already a member.

Every year SAQA holds a conference that is geared towards art quilters who want to hone their marketing skills, further their professional development (such as web marketing, pricing of quilts, etc.), critique works-in-progress, share successes, and get to know one another better. There is also a pre-conference component where you can partake in intensive, hands-on workshops on art quilting techniques.

Quilt National 2009 debuted simultaneously at the Dairy Barn and the 87 quilts chosen for this year’s exhibit were exquisite. This was the 30th anniversary of Quilt National, a biennial juried show and traveling exhibit and it is considered one of the most prestigious contemporary quilt exhibits in the world.

An unusual and unexpected quilt entry. Below is a picture of Susan Else with her colorful, quilted skeleton, “Nothing to Fear.”

Sing along with me now: The hip bone's connected to the....leg bone...

My friend and fellow SAQA board member, Lind Colsh poses with her Quilt National quilt, “Twisting the Plot.”

Kathy York's three-dimensional entry, "Little Fish in a Big City" certainly drew crowds. (You may remember her "Little Fishes" quilt that appeared in Quilting Arts a couple of years ago.) Here's a detail shot of her Quilt National entry:

Quilters try for years (if not decades) to get into this show, and that was why it was so remarkable and exciting to see fresh faces (such as Liz DeBellis, a 24-year-old elementary school art teacher) in this year’s show. Below is a picture of her quilt in the new Quilt National 2009 book (published by Lark).

I sat with Liz and her family at the Quilt National/SAQA banquet, and got to ask her a few questions:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

The next annual SAQA conference will be co-facilitated with the Surface Design Association and take place in San Francisco in March 2010. My colleague, Marci McDade, editor of Fiberarts will be speaking, and you wont want to miss it! More information on this conference forthcoming.

SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Update!

Pokey — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:57:16 GMT

Please note: These exciting workshops are open to non-SAQA members!

Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) will be presenting 6 exciting 3-day workshops May 18-20, 2009 in Athens, Ohio. The 3-day workshops are open to all artists - you don't have to be a SAQA member.

The workshops will be Monday, May 18 - Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at the Dairy Barn Cultural Center and the Ohio University Baker Center in Athens, Ohio. The opening for Quilt National '09 will be that Friday night at the Dairy Barn, and SAQA will be auctioning off an incredible "Art Gallery in a Box IV" at the Quilt National Banquet following the Opening.

PRE-CONFERENCE 3-day WORKSHOPS:

1. Shibori with Christine Zoller
2. Photoshop for Artists with Deidre Adams
3. Complex Design with Leslie Gabrielse (limited spots left!)
4. Silk/Textile Painting with Smadar Knobler
5. Art and Design Fundamentals with Kim Lakin
6. Color Mastery with Maria Peagler

For more information, go to www.SAQA.com>News>SAQA Conference.
To register, contact Desiree Vaughn (desiree.vaughn@elkrapidsnet.com; 231-409-2581).