Moving into September...

Lots to see -- and do -- in Western Canada and beyond!

Let's start in Manitoba, where member Valerie Wilson has  just launched her first Online Workshop: "Facial Expressions -- Portraits in Fabric".

To get this project underway, she reported on her blog last week that she "[is] looking for people to be part of her Workshop Launch Team" folks who'll participate but be rather like tech editors for yarn patterns or proof-readers and sample stitchers for embroidery designers -- providing feedback so she can edit and "fine tune the content".  If you're interested in this Workshop -- whether as part of the Launch Team or as a future student, you can find more information HERE.

Moving west to Alberta...

There are five -- count 'em! -- opportunities to enjoy textile art all through September, courtesy of the Fibre Art Network (FAN), the Calgary-based textile art group, Spectra; a touring SAQA Trunk Show; and an exhibit by the Sheep Creek Weavers.  For details -- dates and locations -- see the poster below, sent to us by Marie McEachern.  Thanks, Marie!

Several SAQA WC members are participants in the FAN exhibits.  "Conversations" includes work by Katie Stein Sather, Karlie Norris McChesney, Janet Bednarczyk, Cathie Ugrin, Jaynie Himsl, Susan Selby, Joyce Brown, Marie McEachern, Linda MacKay, Terry Aske, Diana Bartelings, Victoria Gray, Janet Scruggs, Judy Leslie, Robin Fischer, Mary Wilton, Karen Johnson, Janis (Jan) Clark, Linda Ingham and Bonita (Bonnie) Rozander.

"From a Tiny Seed" includes several of the above-mentioned members, plus Donna-Fay Digance, Shel Hein, Pippa Moore, Judi MacLeod, Theresa Shaw, Paulette Cornish, Karen Cummings, Dianne Firth, Terry Rammell and Sandra Lounsbury.

Well done, everyone!


The SAQA Trunk you'll see is only one of eight trunks that were created in 2017 and have been touring ever since.  Each trunk contains 57 or 58 pieces (459 were submitted and divided up); each piece is mounted on a 12" x 9" backing board and encased in an envelope, on the back of which is information about the artist that created the piece.

Alas, not knowing which trunk will be on exhibit in Alberta, I can't tell you who the artists are -- or if any of our WC members' work is in it -- but I can tell you that if you've never seen one of these Trunks before, it's a fun, interesting and unique experience -- as Jennie reported in her August Regional Newsletter, referring to her visit with the Trunk to the Chilliwack Piecemaker's Guild meeting in June.

What of news from British Columbia?  Congratulations are in order for member Karen Johnson, who has had five (count 'em, too!) pieces accepted into the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Festival to be held in Everett, WA, October 12-14, 2018.

She very graciously included photos of each piece in her e-mail to me with this news, so if you cannot manage to get to the event, you can enjoy them here:

Grid Play #4

Variations on a Grid

Variations on a Grid #2 - Paper

Streamside Stillness*

Circling the Blues**

Karen added the following notes:
* Streamside Stillness was awarded 3rd Place in the Abstract category at CQA;
** Circling the Blues was entered into CQA, but not accepted.

BRAVO, Karen!!

Finally, what about beyond our Region's borders?

SAQA's Annual Benefit Auction begins online two weeks from today!  Are you ready for the fun of watching the bidding?  Do you have your eye on one or two pieces -- perhaps by one of your favourite artists?  Did you create a Dream Collection to share with our international members...or maybe even just in your own mind?

The curating of a Dream Collection is, for me, one of the most fun aspects of the annual Auction, because it's affordable, and I don't have to find wall space in my tiny home for all the pieces I'd love to collect!  😉  This year my Dream Collection is entitled "Pet Project" -- and you can see it -- and all the others posted thus far -- HERE.

***   ***   ***  ***   ***

This weekend marks Labour Day which, for some, marks the end of summer for another year.  For others -- dare I say, for many? -- it's always thought of as the start of a new year, in that it is for those who have children going back to school.   The end of this school year (June 2019) will mark 50 years since I graduated high school, and 45 since I graduated university.  Although I'm gob-smacked by how that happened so quickly, I'm still looking forward to "going back to school" -- creatively, of course. 

To this end, I've enrolled in the SAQA Seminar series for the third year in a row, and am excited about all I can learn, all I can add to my creative tool-box, with these wonderful online (view any time) sessions.

I hope I'll encounter some of you in the live sessions -- and I look forward to where our collective creative journey takes us in this next year. 

Happy Labour Day, everyone!