think-quilts

Thursday:   12 hours layout, hanging, tweaking and finishing up the exhibit

Friday:        First day of APNQ Quiltfest. View the quilts, discover a third place ribbon, attached to my jacket “Migrating Geese” - What a JOY! Meeting friends, chatting away about… more QUILTS!

Saturday:    Late start, meet with a friend, nice chats with lots of friends, fellow quilters, droves of admirers of my quilt “Flor de la Mar” (a close up is the tile streamer of this blog), got to chat with Stacie Baumeister, owner of Quiltworks NW, GALA Dinner in the evening with live auction of “Spice of Life“. Highest bid: $ 3,200. for Joan Colvin’s quilt (sold to Cathy Erickson), “Serendipity” fetched $ 450. (sold to the owner of Clothworks/Seattle). I managed to bid successfully on Melisse Lang’s JAZZ ($ 350).

3-D applique

Sunday:      Meet with a friend, converse about various styles of renowned quilters and discuss to walk the fine line between working in a rut or series? Have dinner with a dear friend, pick up my precious quilts.

Risk-taking, trust, and serentipity are the key ingredients of joy. Without risk, nothing new ever happens. Without trust, fear kreeps in. Without serendipity, there are no surprises.

Tags: APNQ Quiltfest 2008, Clothworks, Serendipity, Spice of Life

… the pile of boxes of unchecked quilts is shrinking. Most quilts are inspected, still, some of the well-known quilters names haven’t been opened, yet. So, there will be more Oohhh, and Aahhh’s…   Besides, 25 entries are supposed to be delivered today.
If we’d be judges, there would be NO winners, - too many different opinions. Very funny. I’m really glad the true judges are “professionals”.

All the wooden slats have been cut as we went, and we’re about to double check the measurements and numbers.

Even the fact that this volunteer job took a lot of my “spare” time, again, it was worth to drive 170 miles in 3 days just to get there and back (out of my own pocket). Quilt receiving is one of the coolest jobs. I’ll be back in two years to do it again.

Tags: APNQ Quilt Receiving

…more georgous quilts coming in by the hour. Excellent quilts with very few exemptions, lots of talent and creativity! We keep telling each other - ”… [You] might be looking at the BIG winner here…”. Of course, there is always some maybe 3%-5% of entries where we look at each other and think: how on earth did this one make it thru the jurying process? But the jurors can only rely on two photographs, if that was good, the entry has the best change to be in the show. On the other hand, and this is meant to be a call to all quilt makers, be aware, these two photographs must show the quilt in it’s best. No feet, hands, cut off heads, wrinkles on the quilt, ‘background garage doors’, etc. If you watch out for these NO-NO’s, you’re half way there. Take care of the lighting situation and your set resolution on your digital camera.

And as in all competitions, there are categories with an incredible amount of entries, that will slim down your chances. Other categories have very little entries. Pick your battle, sometimes it pays off not to be “mainstream”. Classic traditional quilts seem to come out of fashion. Think about it.

Tags: APNQ Quilt Receiving

…boxes and boxes of quilt entries lined up to be opened and inspected, paperwork double-checked, labeled, and a wooden slat assigned/cut.

Beautiful quilts. Fantastic pieces of artwork. Skillful, colorful and loaded with creativity.

Still, for the first time, I don’t feel the urge to run home as fast as I can and work, work work.
It will come back, some day. Creativity needs room to breed, in my head and physically.

Tags: APNQ Quilt Receiving

right now, too many things are going on, or… just not going…
I’m too sad to work on beautiful things.

 - I have to take a break from quilting and art-making.
This last year was a whirlwind of chores and events, it’s time to let the dust settle down and start to recover.

Three lessons to take away from the last 14 months:
–>  I stretched myself too much, for sure in the wrong direction: having finished 4 art quilts for fundraisers, plus at least 5 charity quilts, quilted gifts for friends, and NOTHING for my own collection, is not a satisfactory outcome for the last 9 months of time.
–>  I have to learn to say NO, - regardless ‘who’ wants something
–>  I need to understand that to ask for help is not a sign of weakness, - which is easier said than done.

But still, commitments are lined up to be done or finished. This threadmill has not stopped to spin, yet.

Tags: How to say NO

…packed with new impressions.

Too much to see in only 23 days, but I managed to hit Quilt West in Perth, Australia’s 2nd biggest quilt show. Great experience, fantastic contemproary quilts within a special exhibit ‘Australia Wide’, composed of small, 40 x 40 cm square quilts by OZquilt Network. This alone was worth to go there! The full stories behind the quilts and excellent pictures are posted on OZquilt Network’s website. Unfortunately, not all 48 quilts from the collection were displayed, only little more than a half of it.

Tags: Quilt West

  4 Elements, 28″ x 28″

In 2007, a group of quilters organized a connection to the Fabric of Life organization. During a CQA meeting, we had the opportunity to buy hand-dyed fabric from Mali/Africa. This quilt is my contribution for the fundraiser auction for Fabric of Life, soon to be held (more info on this a.s.a.p.).

The title reflects how I see fire, water, earth and air, - the 4 elements-, interacting. I strongly believe, life needs a bit of every one to keep a balanced sum of all.

Tags: Fabric of Life

 Fragrance

I’m pleased to announce the CQA show “Gathering” at the UpFront Gallery, 48 Front St. N, Issaquah, WA

Artwork will be shown from April 4 - 26th, 2008

Opening at the Issaquah Art Walk, April 4th, 6 - 9 pm, 2008

I will be present at the evening reception.

Tags: CQA

25″ x 25″      -      finished block: 2 1/2 inches. A quarter of the size of Earth, Wind and Fire.
The top of this year’s challenge quilt is pieced.  All scraps in hand-dyes or batiks.
Now, it’s all about the quilting. Again: Ship? What ship? Wat I wasn’t expecting, I truly enjoy to play with the word or motive, coming from this piece of ugly and old fabric I had to use.

I decided to use the motive again, very subtil, sure not in a matter of the visible print.

Deadlines, deadlines, they sneak up so fast, tomorrow is another one: at CQA, - for a Small Quilts show in April at Up Front in Issaquah. Well, I’ll see if this quilt is going to make the move, it still has to run thru the jury process.

I love the layers and circles, which look just as I imagine molecules of fragrances. It reminds me of how the sense of smell can bring back experiences from long ago in an instant

Tags: CQA