Stewarding the SAQA Gallery at Festival of Quilts, Birmingham NEC

SAQA Europe & Middle East - Call for Exhibition Stewards at FoQ 2019! 

 Once again Sandy Snowden is volunteering to organize the stewards for the SAQA global exhibit "Dusk to Dawn" at this year’s Festival of Quilts from 1-4 August 2019 in Birmingham, UK.

 If you are planning to attend the FoQ this year, please consider donating a bit of your time there to steward the exhibit - after all, it’s YOUR exhibition and your your chance as a SAQA member to talk with the audience about SAQA, its benefits and its mission and it’s a prime opportunity to meet fellow SAQA artists not only from the UK and our region but from all over the world!

 It’s a lot of fun - and you are getting something in return, too. As in previous years, the time slots will be 1 ½ hours. AND each volunteer will receive a ticket for the whole 4 days of the show!

 Times are as follows: 10-11:30; 11:30-13:00(1:00pm); 13:00-14:30(2:30pm); 14:30-16:00(4:00pm); 16:00-17:30(5:30pm).

The list of volunteers will be submitted near to the time for the Festival of Quilts show. As in previous years, tickets will be held at the box office and can be collected there.

 To reserve your spot on the list, please email Sandy (snsnowden@harmonyinformation.com) with your preferred time slot and date soon! I’m personally looking forward to meeting many of you in person at the FoQ!

 See you soon,
Birgit

Birgit Schüller E/ME Regional Representative Studio Art Quilt Associates birgit.schueller@creativebits.biz 
www.saqa.com

Newbie co-rep in our region

Firstly, I would like to thank Maggi for her hard work as co-rep and her contribution to the SAQA group.  I know it was a role that was important to her.  I hope I can be a worthy successor.

As co-rep, I plan to support Uta’s activities and match her enthusiasm for SAQA in our region. She does a great job across a wide spectrum of countries, languages and cultures.

A little about me: -

I am fairly new to quilting – until 2012, I embroidered and behaved like a butterfly, flitting from one technique to another!  When I retired, I needed a challenge to replace a demanding IT job in the City of London, so as one does, I moved to quilting where the opportunities to enter competitions and show in exhibitions are more numerous and generally to a higher standard.

As part of my move to quilting, I decided to concentrate on abstract designs in limited colour palettes, improvisional cutting and piecing with simple machine stitch to integrate the design.  The design of the first 3 was good, but the quilting would not have passed the Quilt Police.  I was lucky with the 4th piece – it was accepted for the Fine Arts Quilt Masters gallery at Festival of Quilts in 2013.  And again in 2014, my entry was selected.  Here are images of them:

I am currently working on experimental pieces which have a collage feel.  Some of these will be displayed at the West Country Quilt and Textile Show, UWE, Bristol, November 12^th to 14^th where I am sharing a stand with a fellow SAQA member, Stephanie Crawford.  Other SAQA members are also exhibiting and include k3n and Alicia Merrett as well as SAQA members who have work in the CQ Elements exhibition. 

My reasons for accepting the rep role:

I do hope to make more of my SAQA membership and I know the only way to do that is to participate more and give time and effort to the group.  Contemporary Quilt group in the UK has been an excellent learning experience – I have organised and curated two of their exhibitions at FOQ.  I also set up a regional CQ group and was the group's first organiser.

I would like to enable other members in our region to also make more of their membership.  I have ideas but must first read all the paperwork I have received from Desiree Vaughn, SAQA Regional Rep Coordinator, on guidelines for the role.  So bear with me whilst I do that.  I know Uta has some great ideas for us as well.

I shall be at Knit & Stitch in Harrogate all day Saturday 28^th November with sometime late Friday and early Sunday.  I know some of you will be there as I have been putting the stewarding rota together so it will be good to meet you.

Keep making art and please feel free to contact me to nag, ask questions or make suggestions.

Christine
(ps I also answer to Chris and Chrisse)

This is SAQA Europe/Middle East: Germany

Isabelle Wiessler

I was born in Paris and I am living in Germany since 1980

I began quilting 1990, first traditional, later on more and more abstract. The creative possibilities, that textiles and thread gives me, invited me to see the textile as initial point and medium and to combine it with paint and textiles. It helps me to communicate my feeling and concern about themes like the effect of time in the city but also in the nature, the marks people leave on their environment.

Urban V, 2012, 128 x 76 cm

 

Wasserspiegelunge, 2014, 77 x 140 cm

Gulf of Mexico, 2010

My work has been shown in numerous juried exhibitions. I also take part to group exhibitions and solo shows in Europe, Canada and USA.

Tropische Brise, 2010, 80 x 130

 

Sonneneruption, 2014, 70 x 140 cm

I am since 2010 SAQA Member and since November 2014 juried artist member.

Since 2000 I teach textile art and mix-media in Europe and in Canada.

You can see more examples of my work on my website: www.isabelle-wiessler.de

This is SAQA Europe/Middle East: Germany

Hildegard Müller

I started quilting in the mid-90^th of the last century as a very traditional quilter and enjoyed quilt making. But some years ago I got in touch with modern quilts and art quilts. I became fascinated by the idea to create my own fabric by various methods of dying or printing. So I started to learn these techniques and took part in workshops of well-known art quilters.

Usually I start with an idea, a theme, then I create my fabric by dying, printing adding other materials, sometimes non-textile materials as well or add fabrics and embellish it.

An example for my way of working is “And we will go on…” This work was exhibited in 2012 in Saint-Marie-Aux-Mines at the contest “Yesterday, today, tomorrow”.

And we will go on .... Detail

And we will go on

The diptych "Love in Wartimes" shows parts of poems and love-letters, written during World War I (about 1916) by my Grandmother and a French prisoner of war, who - as far as I know - was forced to work on the fields in that rural area, where my Grandmother lived. Extracts of her letter are on one part, the prisoner's letter is on the other part. I found those writings in my Grandma's poetry book.

Love in War Times

Love in War Times - Detail

This is SAQA Europe/Middle East: Germany

Inge Hueber

detail of „Broadstairs“, 2008

www.ingehueber.de

This is SAQA Europe/Middle East: Germany

Barbara Lange

I have been a quilt enthusiast for the past 20 years and am a proud new juried artist member of SAQA Middle East since October 2014.
I would describe my signature style as a combination bold colors, machine embroidery, intense quilting and interactive elements.
One example form my interactive pieces are the mirror pyramids I incorporate. When the spectator looks straight on to the tip of the mirror pyramid, he or she will discover a new image that is set together out of the reflections of the areas surrounding the pyramid. Once you move aside, the image vanishes.

Magnolia - detail shot of pyramid and beetle

Magnolia - overall 

A second example are the spiral zippers I have added in multiple pieces. They can be opened and closed by that visitors and reveal  - or seclude - images that are behind the zippers.

Gesamtansicht mit rotem Kreis

And a third example I would like to introduce here are glow-in-the-dark threads I use while quilting. Many of my pieces look totally different in the night than they do during the day.

Monochrome VI - Dragonflies. Daytime.

Monochrome VI - Dragonglies. View in the dark.

A theme that has intrigues me lately is insects - especially bees. They are the most successful species on earth when it comes to evolution, and yet they are threatened by man.
This a topic I focused on while making my pieces for the Radiation exhibition I curated together with Angelika Henrichs. This exhibition was presented at the International Radiation protection conference in Geneva 2014 for the first time and is currently travelling through Europe. For more information please go to: http://strahlenausstellungradiationgenf.blogspot.de/

  

Radiation protection shield

A second theme I like to ponder is our role in life - we are only small cog wheels in the busy turn of life - and yet the whole machinery is affected when one little wheel blocks or stops working completely.

Interlocked

2015 I will be presenting a solo exhibition at the European Patchwork Meeting in Sainte-Marie-ax-Mines. I would love to meet as many of you as I can there!
www.barbaralange.com

This is SAQA Europe/Middle East: Lithuania

Maryte Collard

I was born and spent most of my life in Lithuania, country of amber, songs and rain.
Despite my career in a medical field I was always interested in fiber arts and crafts but quilting stole my heart when I was introduced to it in 1997.
For 11 years since 2002 till 2013 I lived in US and there I realized that quilting was much more than a craft, it was an ART.

I started making traditional quilts but soon I realized that I wanted to explore endless possibilities fiber arts offer: raw edge applique using my own hand dyed silk and cotton as a background, painting and thread painting and free motion quilting that is my favorite part of quiltmaking.

I draw my inspiration mostly from nature and life around me but also I love creating abstract quilts letting the pieces of fabric to fall into places just like they knew where they belonged.

A new challenge in my quilting career emerged when I moved back to Lithuania in 2013. There were no tradition of making quilts here and there were no supplies. I had to start dyeing my own fabrics and to this day I am searching for my new style. For now my style often is recognized as “American” when I put my quilts on display in Lithuania or in Latvia.

Even there are few quilters in Lithuania now, there is no sense of community and I feel rather isolated. That's why I joined SAQA and also became a member of Latvian Quilting Association.

This is SAQA Europe/Middle East: Belgium (Denmark/Netherlands/USA)

JETTE CLOVER

I was born and raised in Denmark, but I have lived and worked for many years in the US and in the Netherlands. Since 2005 I live in the beautiful old city Antwerp in Belgium. I started out as a journalist and worked for five years at the daily newspaper Information in Copenhagen, but then I met my husband and moved to America, where I got a degree in art history at the University in Seatttle. And I saw my first quilt, an Amish quilt hanging on a wash line.

When we later moved to the Netherlands I worked at the Dutch Textile Museum, combining my love of textile, of art and art history and of writing. I was excited about  the opportunity to organize exhibitions and introduce ‘new’ quilts, first with an exhibition about American art quilts, and later in 1997 I was the curator of the very first European Art Quilt exhibition.

That last exhibition, however, also made it clear to me how much I missed making my own art work, so in 1998 I left my museum career to make art quilts full time.

Besides being a maker I am also teaching workshops and masters classes , and in 2001 I organized the 2 year course Quilten Speciaal in the Netherlands for quilters who wanted to further their artistic development - and this course is still taking place; we just started with group # 13.

Metropolis 1

Since 2000 I have been a member of the European group Quilt Art. This group celebrates its 30^th anniversary in 2015 with two traveling exhibitions and a big book.

And I have been a member of SAQA for about as many years and served as the SAQA representative for Europe and Israel from 2005-08, when we introduced the first Wide Horizons exhibition at the Carrefour in Alsace.

White Wall 2

I construct my quilts like a collage with many layers of cotton, linen, cheese cloth and paper, which I have painted, printed screened, rusted and bleached. I am fond of monochromatic colors and subtle tones and of hand quilting with big stitches. For the last five years I have focussed on the color white.

Words 5

Almost all of my work refers to writing. I was a journalist before I became an artist, and language and communication continue to be my main source of inspiration – from printed book pages to handwritten notes and letters  and from crude graffiti to posters and advertisements in the streets. The text on my pieces is meant to be seen rather than to be read, and to be seen as the human need for communication.

You can see more examples of my work on my website, www.jetteclover.com

This is SAQA Europe/Middle East: Ireland (Netherlands)

Ireland

Joke Buursma

Originally from The Netherlands, I am now residing in Portlaw, Co. Waterford, Ireland.

I started quilting when I moved to Ireland in 1996.

The Dutch multicultural society has influenced my colour palette, while travelling has evoked my interest in the cultural legacies of the countries I have visited over the years. My collection of books about the cultural history of diverse countries is another source of inspiration.

Burying their children 4

My work often references a sense of place derived from places which affected me.

In the course of the last ten years I have been working on pieces alluding to the Adobe architecture in Mali (West Africa), South Africa's nature, and in other pieces to the past of Ireland, France, Spain, and Syria.

Chameleon

My work consists mainly of cotton fabrics, occasionally of silk, linen and man-made material as well.

I use a mix of commercial and self hand dyed fabrics.

In my work I apply appliqué, painting, discolouring, stamping, stencilling, piecing, and densely free-motion stitching.

Hermaphrodite 1

In the course of this year (2014) I had two solo exhibitions in the South East of Ireland.

Red Earth

If you want to see more of my work you can visit my website:

www.jokebuursma.weebly.com

This is SAQA Europe/Middle East: Belgium

Françoise  Jamart 

 I started making quilts in the early eighties while living in the United States. At first, I fell in love with Amish quilts. I loved their simple designs and subtle colours.

When I came back to Belgium a few years later, I continued making quilts and gradually drifted towards contemporary and art quilting.

I dye, paint and print my fabrics, using several different techniques. Most of the time, I machine-quilt my pieces, although I often add some hand stitching.

Shibori (2014)

My inspiration comes from my natural environment and from my interest in all things Japanese. I traveled several times to Japan and became so intrigued by this beautiful country that I started studying the language a couple of years ago.

Rêverie in Japanese »  (2014)

   

I am a member of the international art quilt group Twelve by Twelve. At the moment, I am working on a series of small quilts using the remnants of fabrics I dyed for the Twelve by Twelve challenges.

Chartreuse Colorplay Scrapquilt (2014)

Recently, I launched a small art quilt group with a few friends. We still have to find a name, but we already have chosen a first theme for the next six months.

I blog at creatilfun.blogspot.com.

Tree of Life (2013)