Blog

It has been a while since I last posted and a lot has happened, good and not so good. But ultimately very good.

First, some good. The Houston Quilt Market/Festival is underway where SAQA’s latest exhibit Celebrating Silver is premiering. SAQA, Studio Art Quilt Associates, is celebrating their 25th anniversary and invited a select number of artists to create a work of art in honor of this landmark. I was lucky enough to be one of the artists selected. We artists had to keep images of our work under wraps until the premiere but I can now share my piece, Moonshine.

It is made with a luscious cobalt blue dupioni silk, silver lamé and a woven blue and silver textile. I will be attending the festival next week and can’t wait to see the entire collection hanging together. For those who can’t attend the opening, you can see the all the quilts on the SAQA website and where they can be purchased. The catalog is also available (it’s gorgeous!) on the SAQA website. And, today I found out a UK publication, British Patchwork & Quilting magazine, has a beautiful write up on SAQA and the Celebrating Silver exhibit, and my Moonshine is one of the featured quilts. What a nice surprise.

More good…this summer my main project was creating a piece for Quilt National, which I’ve never had the privilege of being in mostly due to not entering. Over ten years ago I entered something that I knew would not get in, I wasn’t ready but I wanted to give it go to understand the process, and of course, it didn’t get in. This year, while recuperating from three herniated discs, I thought long and hard about where I wanted to go with my art. I knew I wanted to move away from impressionistic landscapes into abstract work. I knew I wanted to work large and minimal and I knew I wanted to continue using the salvaged silk sari remnants I’d fallen in love with. Most importantly, I knew I wanted to start working in a series. This summer I made and entered the first piece in this series in Quilt National. It was accepted.

This is insane. This almost never happens. Most first time artists submitting to QN try for years to get in. Well, I’m going to take this as a sign that I have found the direction I’ve been digging down into my soul searching for. This feels good.

Which makes up for all the physical difficulties I had over the summer while making it and preventing me from making a second piece. Without getting too graphic, my back issues were exacerbated by, if not in fact caused by, a very large fibroid pressing against my spine. Ultimately, it was surgically removed (the fibroid, not my spine), along with some female odds and ends I had no need of. Compared to the back pain and sciatica, the surgery was a cake-walk. It’s been a difficult year and, at the same time, one of my very best years.

Feeling so much better now, I’m headed to Houston to walk my assets off looking at quilts!