Dutch Translation of the newsletter

Unfortunately, the Dutch translation of the newsletter arrived a bit later than we had set ourselves for the distribution of the newsletter.
Here it is:

SAQA Nieuwsbrief juni 2015

1) Festival of Quilts 2015 – oproep aan vrijwilligers; de meet-and-greet.

Het is weer de tijd van het jaar om vrijwilligers te vragen, dit keer voor de SAQA tentoonstelling ‘Food for Thought’ op het Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Het festival vindt plaats van donderdag 6 augustus tot en met zondag 9 augustus.

Als je tijd hebt om te helpen, stuur dan alsjeblieft een email naar Sandy Snowden: snsnowden@harmonyinformation.com en laat haar weten dat je graag wilt helpen. Sessies duren normaal gesproken 90 minuten, gestart wordt dagelijks vanaf 10 uur tot 17.30 uur, met uitzondering van zondag, dan sluit de show om 17.00 uur.

Dit is een mooie gelegenheid om bezoekers, andere SAQA leden en mogelijke toekomstige SAQA leden te ontmoeten.

Als je het idee hebt dat je onvoldoende kennis hebt van de Engelse taal, laat dit Sandy dan weten. Er wordt dan gezorgd voor een Engels sprekende vrijwilliger bij jou. Het is een groot voordeel als er vrijwilligers zijn die andere talen spreken, omdat het Festival een zeer internationaal karakter heeft.

Vrijwilligers krijgen een gratis entreekaart voor het Festival.

De SAQA meet-and-greet zal hoogstwaarschijnlijk plaatsvinden op vrijdagmiddag, maar de exacte datum en tijd staan nog niet vast. Op een later tijdstip zullen wij dit laten weten en we zullen deze gegevens ook op het blog vermelden.

2) Maria Shell Webinar

Mogelijk hebben jullie al het bericht gelezen over de laatste webinar in de wekelijkse eBlast van 27 mei jl.: The Art of the Word: Getting Grants and Other Art Opportunities by Crafting a Well-Written Proposal – 25 juni, 13.00 uur (Europese tijd). Maggi kan je deze webinar van harte aanbevelen, mocht je je nog niet hebben opgegeven hiervoor. Maria was een van de belangrijkste sprekers op de Fiberlandia conferentie en zij had daar een geweldige presentatie. Hierbij een opmerking van een van de luisteraars: ‘Maria Shell

gaf een goede uitleg voor zowel beginners als de meer gevestigde kunstenaars – met een groot gevoel voor humor!’

3) Veiling donaties

Hopelijk hebben jullie je donatie voor de veiling verstuurd, want de deadline is inmiddels verstreken. Er staan korte video’s op YouTube over het maken van de quilts door veel leden en er worden er nog regelmatig toegevoegd. De video’s kunnen via de volgende link worden bekeken: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ5BzRvCPgNeMqLMKeMUncg of zoek naar SAQAart op het YouTube kanaal.

Als je dit nog niet hebt gedaan, het verzoek om een email naar Uta te sturen met de details van je donatie, omdat ze een serie met blogposts hierover wil schrijven. Het kost tijd om de blog posts over de verschillende data te spreiden, dus graag niet te lang wachten.

4) 6th Europese Quilt Triennale

Felicitaties voor de volgende leden die geselecteerd zijn voor de tentoonstelling: Jette Clover, Maryline Colliard-Robert, Ramona Conconi, Helen Conway, Yael David-Cohen, Inge Heuber, Elsbeth Nusser-Lampe, Miriam Pet-Jacobs, Sandy Snowden.

De tentoonstelling loopt van 13 september 2015 tot 1 januari 2016.

5) Een excuus van Maggi

Het spijt me dat ik geen blogpost heb geschreven over de Quilt National inzendingen, de Fiberlandica conferentie en een handleiding voor de nieuwe website, maar ik had een virus opgelopen nadat ik thuis was gekomen van de conferentie waardoor ik een tijdje ziek ben geweest. Ik zal hier komende week over gaan schrijven. Dank jullie wel voor jullie geduld.

6) SAQA voorjaarsverzoek (Spring Appeal) voor donaties

Als aanvulling op de ledenbijdrage, is SAQA afhankelijk van vrijwillige donaties om het rijke en gevarieerde programma mogelijk te maken dat elkaar inspireert, motiveert en de mogelijkheid geeft om quilt kunstenaars zich te laten ontwikkelen en de art qults wereldwijd te promoten.

We hebben allemaal voordeel van SAQA op verschillende manieren met o.a. verkoop en expositie van ons werk door de veiling en tentoonstellingen. Als je de mogelijkheid hebt om een donatie voor de Spring Appeal te doen, dan kan dat via MY SAQA op de website en te klikken op de knop links om een donatie te doen (donation knop).

7) Receptie voor SAQA leden in Ste. Marie-aux-Mines, SAQA tafel bezetting

Zoals elk jaar is ook dit jaar weer een receptie voor SAQA leden in Ste. Marie-aux-Mines gepland op vrijdag tijdens het festival om 12.30 uur, dat is vrijdag 18 september. Als je hier aan deel wilt nemen stuur dan een mail naar Uta: Uta_at_SAQA@web.de. Er is beperkt plaats en het spijt ons dat het uitsluitend voor leden is (dus geen echtgenoten, vrienden e.d.).

Tijdens de Carrefour vindt de SAQA-show ‘Redirecting the Ordinary’ plaats (gejureerd door Alicia Merrett, coördinator: Gül Laporte) en we hebben ook dan vrijwilligers nodig om de tafel te bezetten tijdens het festival. Als je wat tijd kunt vrijmaken hiervoor, stuur dan alsjeblieft een mail naar Uta_at_SAQA@web.de!

8) de SAQA trunk show komt misschien naar Europa!

SAQA organiseert al Jaren trunk shows en in 2016 komt er weer één. Bill Redeker is positief dat deze ook naar Europa zal kunnen komen. Wij vragen individuele groepen en landen uit onze regio of er interesse hiervoor is om deze te laten zien op eigen locaties. Indien hier belangstelling voor is, neem dan contact op met Maggi of Uta, omdat we informatie moeten vergaren voordat we een calculatie kunnen maken van kosten en besluit tot werkelijke deelname om deze over te laten komen. 

Tenslotte wensen we jullie een hele creatieve zomer,

Maggi and Uta

Thank you, Marjolijn!

Fiberlandia 2015. SAQA's annual conference

Should you try to get to a SAQA conference? One of the problems that we face in our region is that going to any SAQA conference involves a long-haul flight which does, of course add to the expense of the conference fee and the accommodation. I made that trip this year to Portland, Oregon, partly because I felt that, as one of your co-reps, our region should be represented. However, I have absolutely no regrets about attending the conference and would recommend that, if you can do it, that you try to attend at least one conference during the lifetime of your SAQA membership.

As reps, we started a day earlier than everyone else and had a very useful meeting. It seems that many  regions have a similar problem to us in that their membership is very spread out but none of them have to contend with so many different countries and most other reps hadn't even considered the fact that there are so many different languages spoken across our region!

Each conference will be different, of course, and will depend on the quality of the speakers etc., but I suspect that they will all have something to offer. At Fiberlandia there were four Keynote speakers who were Namita Gupta Wiggers, Maria Shell and Beth Smith with Charlotte Bird (Quilt Visions).  I am not going to reinvent the wheel here but instead direct you to the SAQA Western Canada blog where the rep, Margaret Blank, obviously took many more notes than I did and has written an excellent post about the speakers. If you didn't get to sign up for Maria Shell's webinar next week she has written about it on her blog here.

There were 3 Artist Panels during the conference.

The International Artist Panel, moderated by Rosalie Dace  from South Africa, comprised Hsin-Chen Lin from Taiwan, Maggie Vanderweit from Canada, Sue Dennis from Australia and Gul Laporte from France. They discussed how artists on the edge maintain a balance in a changing world aesthetic while keeping open to the exhilaration of the unknown and the possibility of new discoveries.

The local Artist Panel was moderated by Jeannette Di Nicolis Meyer and the discussion explored the process that the four artists use in creating their art. The artists were Bonnie Buckram, Sidnee Snell, Sheila Finzer and Jean Wells Keenan. Oregon certainly has a wealth of artistic talent. In the following two photos you can just about see the work of Jean Wells Keenan (first photo) and that of Sheila Finzer and Sidnee Snell.

It was fascinating to listen in to the Student Artis Panel and to see their presentations. Hopefully some of them will join SAQA and be seen in exhibitions in the future. We need to encourage younger artists who can continue to build on and develop the art quilt. The students were Molly Eno, Melina Bishop, Kaylin Francis and Tyler Peterson.

There were three breakout sessions that we could opt into; Carolyn Higgins on Social Media, Lyric Kinard on why making bad art is vital to our success and Sue Reno on Developing and Sustaining our Daily Artistic Practice. I chose to go to the sessions with Lyric and Sue and they were even better than I expected. Lyric is a speaker full of energy and enthusiasm and you can't help but come away feeling motivated. Sue had  persuaded several artists to explain their strategies which helped them to ramp up their creative output. The overall message that came from both Lyric and Sue was that 'we need to do the work.'

It wasn't all sitting down, looking and listening however. There was a Maker's Space evening for people to try out new products and different techniques. Sorry this photo is a little blurred but I was juggling handing out instructions to people who were coming in with trying to use my phone.

Saturday afternoon provided us with free time to either do our own thing or sign up for a guided tour. There were six to choose from and although I would have liked to have seen all the artistic venues that Portland had to offer, I opted for the trip to Multnomah Falls as I wanted to see more of Oregon. We were taken on the journey in private cars, chauffeured by local SAQA member Jill Hoddick and her husband Kent. The weather was beautiful and we had an excellent pre-booked lunch which was very welcome after the walk up the falls. This is just a small group of those who went, with Jill  in the centre of the photo and the Falls in the background. Some of us made it up to the bridge in the background while others were far more energetic and made it right up to the top.

Saturday evening was the Wild About SAQA dinner and the Spotlight Auction. There was a real buzz of excitement about it and no wonder as the quality of the small pieces was excellent. You have no doubt heard that over $14,000 was raised in that single evening. Thank you to all of our members who donated a piece.

Was it worth it? Would I go again? Most definitely yes, although I'll probably have to save up hard first!

For those of you who might be thinking about going and even combining it with a holiday to America the next 3 conferences are:-

2016 Philadelpia

2017 Lincoln, Nebraska

2018 San Antonio, Texas

Quilt National '15: Dorte Jensen on YouTube

Festival of Quilts 2015 - call for volunteers correction

In the previous post about volunteering, Sandy's email address does not link to her. To contact Sandy please email her at snsnowden@harmonyinformation.com  She will get back to you as soon as she returns from America.

Also please note that, if you volunteer to do a session then you will receive a pass for the show and not just for the day that you volunteer.

Quilt National 2015 - Brigitte Kopp

Brigitte Kopp, “On the road to…”, 2014

64” x 61“

Material:

Self painted linen and cotton, silk organza, latex, different threads

Technique:

Layered fabrics, open edge appliqué, draped latex, hand and machine quilted and embroidered

I felt honoured being selected for the second time for Quilt National and I promised Maggi to write something about my travel to Athens and my quilt.  After booking the flight to USA, I decided to go to see the dentist for some corrections. To make it short, after some surgeries it is not yet finished – impossible to travel.

To see the exiting pieces of the others, meeting quilters from the USA and other countries, getting all the information at the SAQA Symposium was a great experience for me when visiting QN in 2013.  Therefore I was very sad to stay home.  I hope somebody else was travelling to QN and will post some pictures.

My quilt selected for 2015 is from the series of quilts about women’s life I started in 2013.

This work is dedicated to all women who have to deplore losses, whether the loss of their home, livelihood or even their relatives.

At first sight you may think it is a piece of a Madonna but if you look of the little appliquéd pictures around and the hand stitched background, showing a oriental city getting more and more destroyed, you will see that it is about a mother and her baby fleeing war and destruction.

As in the visual arts, each stroke for a work is important; to me each stitch in a quilt is a significant design component. The stripes of red self painted fabrics and the cut outs in form of an “L” as a sign for lost, are essential components of the design. I have fixed the red stripes with big cross stitches. Crosses are my sign for something that has to end, as the wars in the Middle East. The dark blue draped latex is a sign for the path of the women. You can find some other signs in my quilt, but I will leave it to you to find an interpretation.

Thank you Brigitte. I found this piece really moving.

And, as Brigitte writes 'You can find out more about the Dairy Barn and the quilts of Quilt National 2015 in the gorgeous catalogue you can by at the gallery shop on the QN website:'

http://dairybarn.org/quilt-national/quilt-national-2015/

Festival of Quilts 2015 in Birmingham - Call for volunteers.

It’s that time of the year again when we are asking for people to volunteer some of their time to steward the SAQA exhibition, (Food for Thought), at Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. 

The dates for the Festival are from Thursday 6th August to Sunday 9th August

If you are able to give some of your time then please email Sandy Snowden at snsnowden@harmonyinformation.com to let her know which day you would be willing to help out. Sessions are normally for 90 minutes, starting from 10 am each day and going on until 5.30 pm each day, except Sunday, when the show closes at 5 pm. 

This is a great opportunity to meet members of the public, other SAQA members and potential SAQA members. If you are at all concerned that English is not your first language then please let Sandy know and we will make sure that there is an English speaking volunteer on duty with you. Having volunteers who speak different languages is a real benefit as the Festival is truly international.  So we need your native language just as much as English!

Volunteers will get a free pass for the day - so if you sign up for two days, you will get two day passes etc. Well worth considering!

If you write to Sandy, please allow a few days for her reply as she is traveling on family matters right now, but she will get back to you. Thank you.

Quilt National 2015 - Olga Norris

Today's Quilt National offering comes from Olga Norris from the UK. Olga describes both her inspiration and process.

'Crowded is the result of work I am doing on the subject of repeats.  I am attracted to the idea of a repeat being both exact and different.  The differences for me make the repeats more interesting, revealing more about the image.  Crowd was the initial image, and I hope an enigma: what kind of crowd? Positive or negative? Political or religious?  Herded or spontaneous?
This is the third time that I have had work chosen for the Quilt National exhibition.  My work uses digital collage and print as an important element in its image development, but Crowded is the first to be developed directly from traditional printmaking.  I started with a collagraph plate made simply of cardboard, masking tape, acrylic medium, and carborundum. 

(1)

 (2)

This was an experiment in viscosity printing, where inks of different densities are used to create intaglio and relief printing at the same time.  I was pleased with the five variations I achieved; I very much liked the effect of them together, and decided to make a quilt out of them.

(3)

I scanned the five paper prints and digitally tidied up little elements, then printed out three copies of each of the five versions.  I used a desktop printer with prepared sheets of A3 size silk.  These are extremely fine, and so I ironed on thin Vilene in order to provide enough stiffness to stitch comfortably.  I joined all the rectangles together by machine before beginning to hand stitch the individual panels.

(4)

(5)

I was delighted with the result and even more delighted when Crowded was chosen for Quilt National 2015'

(6) 

Thank you sharing your work with us Olga.

Quilt National 2015 - Dorte Jensen

Quilt National seems to be a show that most art quilters aspire to enter.  Several members of our region were juried in this year and now that the exhibition has opened we are able to take a look at some of their work. 

From the Quilt National website:-

Quilt National was intended to demonstrate the transformations taking place in the world of quilting. Its purpose was then, and still is, to carry the definition of quilting far beyond its traditional parameters and to promote quiltmaking as what it always has been — an art form.

The works in a Quilt National exhibit display a reverence for the lessons taught by the makers of the heritage quilts. Many of the works hold fast to the traditional methods of piecing and patching. At the same time, however, the Quilt National artist is intrigued by the challenge of expanding the boundaries of traditional quiltmaking by utilizing the newest materials and technologies. These innovative works generate strong emotional responses in the viewer while at the same time fulfilling the creative need of the artist to make a totally individual statement.

Dorte Jensen from Denmark is the first artist in this short series with her piece entitled 'The Sunshine of My Life'. In her own words she says -

My picture “ The Sunshine of My Life”  shows my daughter and her son. They play on the beach in the summer and she lifts him high above the water – all the way to the sun. His head becomes the sun itself and he beams back to his mother.

And isn't it just the way it is: our children are small sun rays. If we "lift them up" and support them the right way, they will shine upon us and fill our lives with sunshine.

Thank you for sharing this with those of us who could not be there Dorte.