"Not Fade Away 2015: Sharing Quilt Stories In The Digital Age"

I'm sharing the press release for the upcoming event, "Not Fade Away":  Sharing Quilt Stories In The Digital Age".  I'll be offering a labeling workshop (times two!) with Michele Muska and would love to see you there!  And to sweeten the deal:  "Sacred Threads", which debuts on July 10th at the same location as the conference, will be open for attendees to visit!

Read on......

Quilt history isn't over. Every time a new quilt is made, another chapter of quilt history is written -- or at least it should be. The nonprofit Quilt Alliance teaches quiltmakers, quilt collectors and quilt lovers everywhere how to record history as it happens.

This summer, the Alliance will conduct its second conference on the oral history of quilts, full of up-to-the-minute techniques and inspiring projects. Not Fade Away: Sharing Quilt Stories in the Digital Age will be held on Saturday, July 18 in Herndon, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. The conference, sponsored by eQuilter.com, Sacred Threads and the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, will feature lectures, workshops, networking opportunities and more. 

Attendees from our 2013 Not Fade Away conference said: 

"Information shared, inspiration invoked, comfort and ease of facilities all came together."

"Combining the conference with a quilt show was a wonderful idea and helped my decision to attend."

"I loved the entire conference. This was the first Quilt Alliance conference that I have attended, and I was blown away by the professionalism and collegial atmosphere. The presentations were top-knotch and I will definitely attend other QA events when I am able to."

"My experience was outstanding! I thought the facilities were ideal, the staff was most gracious & cordial, the online registration process was easy & was handled beautifully."

This year's conference features a packed day-long program on Saturday, July 18, as well as an optional Friday night program. A two-day pass to the conference costs $75 for Quilt Alliance members and $90 for non-members (annual membership starts at $25/year). One-day passes are also available, as well as packages that include a fundraising dinner on Saturday evening.

A ticket to Friday evening's program includes a welcome mixer with appetizers and non-alcoholic drinks, a preview of the Sacred Threads exhibition, and an exciting night of video previews and a special presentation of the work of Donna Sue Groves, founder of the first Quilt Barn Trail in Adams County, Ohio. Filmmaker Julianne Donofrio will preview her film, Pieced Together and answer questions about how she put together funding for this documentary about "How quilt square trails changed America - and saved Donna Sue's life after job loss and breast cancer."

Admission to Saturday's full day program includes coffee and danish breakfast, a boxed lunch, and a full day of workshops, discussions and informal networking sessions on oral history and documentation techniques, challenges and successes. Conference registration includes one-day admission to Sacred Threads, an international exhibition of quilts exploring themes of spirituality, joy, inspiration, peace/brotherhood, grief and healing.

  

Marin Hanson will give the keynote address "One Hundred Good Wishes Quilts: Commemorating and Documenting Adoptions from China" about the tradition of American families making a special kind of quilt to celebrate and commemorate their children's adoption from China.

Shoshana (on left) and Anna (on right) Levin showing off their One Hundred Good Wishes Quilts made by their mom, Michele Levin. Photo courtesy Michele Levin.

Marin Hanson

 Marin Hanson is the Curator of Exhibitions at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum (IQSCM) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). She holds undergraduate degrees from Grinnell College and Northern Illinois University and earned her MA in museum studies and textile history with a quilt studies emphasis from UNL. Marin has served on the board of the Quilt Alliance since 2009.

Saturday's program will also include a panel discussion titled 

Using the Family Tree to Piece Together the Story of a Quilt. 

Panelists include Gloria Comstock, Michelle Flamer, Kyra Hicks, Mary Holton Robare and Mary Worrall.

The Alliance's newest video oral history project, Go Tell It at the Quilt Show! as well as the Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories project (launched in 1999), will also be demonstrated. Quiltmakers whose work will appear in the Sacred Threads Exhibition will be interviewed for this short-format video documentation project during the lunch break.

Conference attendees will choose two workshops from the following topics:

• Self-Publishing for Quilters with Kyra Hicks.
• Label It. Today! with Leslie Tucker Jenison and Michele Muska.
• Create Your Own Adventure: Using the Q.S.O.S. Project Database with Christine Humphrey
• How to Conduct Q.S.O.S. Interviews with Pauline Macaulay and Emma Parker 
• Untapping the records and resources of the Quilt Index with Mary Worrall
   

The conference will close on Saturday evening with a dinner to honor outgoing Quilt Alliance president Meg Cox at Amphora Diner Deluxe in Herndon. Meg will share both the story of her life with quilts and some of the most meaningful quilts in her collection, like the one pictured below made by Meg's mother, Jo Cox. 

Quilt Alliance President Meg Cox

Those unable to make the trip to Herndon for the Not Fade Away conference can attend virtually by purchasing a Not Fade Away Home Ticket, which will provide them with online access to video footage of the event after the conference closes. The cost of a Home Ticket is $15 for Quilt Alliance members and $20 for non-members.

Discounts for groups of ten or more are available. Contact Debby Josephs for more information at admin@quiltalliance.org or 828-251-7073.

Not Fade Away attendees can also take advantage of a Museum Bus Tour on Friday, July 17 (9:00 am - 5:00 pm). The tour will stop at three museums, and participants will get to see special exhibits at each, including the DAR Museum's "Eye on Elegance" show. This trip is offered by Sacred Threads and tickets are $75/person. Information and ticket sales for the bus tour can be found here: http://sacredthreadsquilts.com/html/bustour.html

The Not Fade Away conference is made possible by support from these generous sponsors:

 

Seating for the conference is limited so early registration is encouraged. Not Fade Away conference details and online registration can be found on the Quilt Alliance website here: http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/support/NFA2015tickets.php.  

To The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK!

I'm slow to post about my adventure to the Birmingham Festival of Quilts.  Nose to the grindstone in my studio since returning as I have had a lot of work to do and was behind!
What an adventure!  Three best parts:  my husband Tim went along with me and it was his FIRST-EVER quilt show! Second best part was reuniting with my dear friends from Committed to Cloth!  I used to see them every year as they would travel to San Antonio for a week-long independent study.  Times changed and we haven't seen each other for a number of years.  What fun we had!  Tim and I elected to stay in the small village of Knowle at the same place as our friends so we had wonderful times together throughout our stay.  Third best thing:  I had a quilt juried into the "Art Quilt:  Masters" portion of the show.

Heading back to the UK for the second time this year!

Working on a "Sweet Little Something" in-flight

Here are some more....

Wha..?  Quite a shocking change from the 100' S TX weather!

A lovely piece in the Art Quilt Masters by Marion Hall,

a student of my friend Claire Benn

Posing with the sign and my quilt.

Ann Johnston had an exhibition of her work at the show.

It was great to see her again!

Her work was stunning and I adored how well it was hung:  gallery-like setting and 

some of the pieces were free-hanging.  

Really impressive!

The Virtual Studio:  such an incredible thing to see at a quilt show!

A true working sink and all the rest of the wet studio bells and whistles.

Now this is truly an Open Studio.  I was gobsmacked.

A wonderful piece by my friend, Susie Koren

Okay, if you know me at all (rock-obsessed) you already know 

how much I adore this installation of "Granite Pebbles" by Jacqui Cotterill

Afternoons sitting outside under the market umbrellas with Daline Stott and Claire Benn

stitching, chatting, drinking tea...

and Pimms

The sweet village of Knowle.  

Enchanting!

An installation of wearables...

Meeting Sandra Snowden in-person after years of virtual friendship.

I was so impressed with the entire show, but one exhibition really stood out in my mind:

The collaborative group "Art Textiles:  Made In Britain".  Wow.

Eleven women artists who make very different sorts of work, creating a show bound by the 

theme, "Identity".  Powerful work.

This piece by Rosie James really struck a chord with me.

Here is Claire Benn walking through it.

So beautiful and ethereal.  Sigh.

machine stitched organza panels.  Beautiful!

Also the work of my friend Cas Holmes.

I was fortunate to take a workshop from her this spring in San Diego.

So fun to see her!

And then there was Eszter Bormemisza!

Just....wowza!

Her work is absolutely thrilling.

I got to meet the lovely Deborah O'Hare.

She had just seen my husband's film so I took him over to meet her.

Our final gathering was for dinner at a Thai restaurant.

What fun to have all these wonderful people together on the 

night before my 60th birthday?!  I headed home on my birthday with a full heart.

So thankful to know these amazing people.

A bit of "show and tell" from the Alliance for American Quilts board meeting

Since our board meeting is being generously hosted by Mark Dunn, of Moda Fabrics, I thought this bit of AAQ board show and tell was pretty cool.

Luke Haynes created this fantastic quilt of fellow board-member, Mark Dunn,

owner of Moda Fabrics

This is NOT a photo-transfer, people

Floribunda (a little peek)

This is a detail shot of my piece which is part of a larger, collaborative piece.  I had fun doing it because I haven't made a dimensional textile piece in a long time.  This uses a lot of different types of cloth:  silk organza, habotai, cotton, and the base is one of Wendy Richardson's beautiful over-dyed home-dec canvases.  I can't wait to see the large finished piece!  Very exciting!

Shake Your Groove Thing........and we did!

I'm home with my feet up after facilitating a 2-day workshop on free motion quilting, free-hand cutting, and free-wheeling fusing.  I lured them in with the idea of free motion quilting, but little did they know that I was plotting other little things........
My students inspired me so much with their willingness to learn these new skills.  Many were learning on a new machine, so they had at least two new skill sets to wrestle.  As a teacher I feel fortunate to be in the presence of so much creative energy.  I know that learning how to free motion quilt is a difficult endeavor, stitch-regulator or not:  there is no substitute for "just doing it".  And "it" is frustrating at times.  I compare it to learning how to snow ski:  it just feels awkward at first.  Then, when you have an "aha" moment, and another, you begin to "get" why people really like to do it.  I'm honored to be able to nurture that in another quilt-maker.
It is uncharacteristic for me to forget to take many photos, but I only took 3 during the entire two days of class!  This is positively bizarre (for me, at least).  I'm counting on the students to send images to me so I can share their amazing work on the blog.

 here is a portion of the class, working on their small quilts

 progress, progress, progress....

look at those cute purple Grabaroo gloves!

Many of us tried them for the first time and they are winners!

New acquisition from Laurie Brainerd

Laurie Brainerd is an artist friend, former gallery partner, and someone whose work I greatly admire.
Her work has a clean, rich aesthetic that I enjoy gazing at.  She recently discussed her work at a monthly meeting of the Fiber Artists of San Antonio, and I fell in love with this piece as soon as I saw it!
Please enjoy.  I apologize for the less-than-perfect image, but this is where it resides in my home, in the kitchen breakfast area:

This piece is comprised of two separate parts, closely installed

Kathy York: Cover Girl!

Kathy York's amazing quilt, "Fifty, Female, and Fearless"

Kathy's quilt can be seen in Houston at the International Quilt Festival as part of "Beneath The Surface",

a special exhibition co-curated by Jamie Fingal and myself.

Dinner At Eight Artists ROCK!

And, if that wasn't cool enough (which it IS) I will have an article in the same magazine about using shredded paper for various surface design techniques.  Woo Hoo!

House Quilt Project

Jamie Fingal invited several artists to join her in creating a quilt to commemorate the newest completed homes in Orange County for Habitat for Humanity.
Here is what Jamie has to say about the project:

I am working with Furnishing Hope of Orange County.  Beth Phillips heads up this non-profit organization that works with interior designers to decorate, furnish and create amazing interiors for houses that Habitat for Humanity builds in Orange County.
I am coordinating the making of small house quilts for each family in a San Juan Capistrano tract that H4H is building.  Each wall quilt will be 12"wide by 16"long and will reflect the interior colors and style of each individual house.  I have asked 13 artists to participate in this project with me.  Furnishing Hope is on Facebook too, if you want to learn more about what they do or make a donation.

This is the quilt I created for the project.

Please visit Jamie's blog for additional images of quilts in the project.

An article about Habitat homes in San Juan Capistrano - and a video - so be sure to watch that part.  Beth Phillips was Jamie's contact person. http://www.ocregister.com/news/homes-267066-habitat-marines.html

A final note:  an Open House was held on Thursday, 9/23/10.  Jamie Fingal and Felisa Lyons attended, and said that the event was very moving.  Jamie was kind enough to photograph the quilt I donated in its new home:

CREATE workshop: "Dreaming In Canvas: A Painted Quilt"

Our first workshop at the CREATE! Cloth Paper Scissors retreat in Chicago was an overwhelming success!  Our fabulous students created 2 canvases that were truly breath-taking, and transformed sections from both into beautiful quilts fused to black felt.  Please take a look:

Part of the group works on the underlayment of the painting

Here is the second painting.

Groups switched back and forth between the two canvases!

Close to finished!

The second canvas is almost finished!

Each canvas was divided so every student got a section from both.

Pieces were cut and assembled onto felt, then fused. 

The fused designs were machine-quilted with our beautiful Bernina 440 QE machines!

Students hard at work on their creations.

Music playing, and we had a great time together.

Here are my 2 quilts, assembled and quilted in the afternoon.

Here are most of the students, holding their finished quilts!

Yay!

For additional photos please visit Jamie Fingal's blog: http://jamiefingaldesigns.blogspot.com/