Masters II Exhibit at NEQM

Over the weekend I was able to attend the gallery tour given by Martha Sielman, the curator of the Masters II exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA. What a great experience! She knew so much about each quilt that you can't get by just reading the cards on the wall. Unfortunately, while pictures were allowed, we were asked not to use them in blogs or on facebook, so there are a lot of links, not a lot of pictures.
One picture of most of the SAQA members in attendance:

Martha is in the front, center left. I'm smiling from the third row, third from the right. 

and it was great to see Janet, Michele, Maryann and Margaret!

The work in the show was fabulous! Someone asked what my favorite was and there is no way I could pick one, even now. Although there is one that I would take home in a heartbeat. A Time To Dance May 17 by Karin Franzen can be seen here. She used sheers in layers which gives a very floaty three dimensional effect. I'm pretty sure those cranes would be happy nesting here.

There is a piece by Maryline Collioud Robert in the show with brilliant colors and intriguing organic shapes. While her inspiration comes from the real world, she brings these visions back to her studio not by taking photos or sketching the images, but by collecting adjectives and then refers back to this list of words to create her quilts. What a great way to get an abstract image that completely represents the original scene.

There were quite a few pieces that incorporated hand piecing or hand quilting which was beautiful, it's such a different look and feel from machine pieced and quilted. It also made me a bit nostalgic for my hand quilting days. (Especially today after wrestling with my long-arm!) I loved the focus it required and the control I had over the materials. Perhaps a separate series in the future.

Please go see this show if you can, it is well worth the time!

New Class!

Yes, it's been a while. Last fall was so out of routine that I ended up just holding on and going for the ride!

I've started a new class with the awesomeness that is Lisa Call, her Master Class. It's a six month class, so I will have a much better vision of where my quilts are going and getting into the studio will become more routine. It's hard to argue with six months of (good) habit making!

I've started my first quilt for the class, based on Artem, which will become Artem #1, first in a series of quilts made with raised lettering and painted. No pictures yet! Next week should show some progress.