Who's Showing?

The Canadian Quilters' Association (CQA) show -- Quilt Canada -- is in Vancouver, B.C. this year.

I hear tell that at several of SAQA WC's members have just had pieces accepted into the CQA's National Juried Show!

Congratulations to Terry Aske, Diana Barteling, Alison Dean Cowitz, Robin Fischer, Jaynie Himsl, Karen Johnson, Paula Jolly, Judy Leslie, Karlie McChesney, Anne Rayner-Gould, and Susan Selby!**

AND

Terry is to be congratulated as well for having two pieces accepted into SAQA's Juried Exhibit, Dusk to Dawn.

Moonrise - Terry Aske, 2018

Aurora - Terry Aske, 2018

Congratulations to all of you!

In Other Exhibit News...

The Mountain Cabin Quilters' Guild of Canmore, Alberta, opens its Annual Artistic Visions show this weekend at Elevation Place.  This show runs from March 4 through March 20.  Admission is free, and there will be 29 quilts on display.* 

And...B.C. member, Karlie Norrish McChesney has work in the 5th Annual Fibre Arts Show at the Gallery Vertigo in Vernon, B.C.  The exhibit runs from March 6 through March 31, 2018.

The Opening Reception is March 10, 2018 from 7 - 9 p.m.  NOTE: this is a change from the date posted in the advertising photo (below), so if you are planning to attend, please make careful note of this revised information!

*EDITOR'S NOTE: I've written to a contact about the Exhibit for permission to post a photo and to mention SAQA members, but have had no response.  Should I receive word, I will update this post ASAP.  Thank you.

**ED. NOTE II: Thanks to Judy Leslie for helping me up-date the list of SAQA WC members showing at the CQA Nat'l. Juried Show!

If you have exhibit information to share with your SAQA colleagues in Western Canada, across Canada and world-wide (yes, members in other Regions read this blog!), please e-mail blog editor Margaret Blank.

Thank you for your support!

A Great Summer for SAQA WC Artists!

This summer is a great one for taking in work by our Western Canadian members.

"Western Threads", the collaborative show that includes our exhibit, "Meet the Best of the West", is up for a few more weeks (till August 4) at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton.

Several members have pieces in the Focus on Fibre Arts Association's Biennial Juried Show, "Prairies", on through the end of August at the upstairs gallery at Enterprise Square in Edmonton.

And "The Burgess Shale" exhibit is currently on at the Beiseker Station Museum in Beiseker, Alberta through July 30.  It will move to the Sundre Municipal Library for July 30 through August 25.

Alison Cowitz's piece, "Ozzie" has won a red ribbon at this year's Calgary Stampede!  You can see it on display there through Sunday.  Here's what she wrote me yesterday:

I entered a One Block Wonder quilt in the Stampede Western Lifestyles Creative Arts & Crafts Competition last year, and I was really surprised to get a 3rd place ribbon for my first time entering!

As a young girl I loved going to the Calgary Stampede and seeing all the creative things that people would make and enter into the Showcase. I think the competitive nature in me just wanted to enter again, so I raised my bar and pushed hard to finish Ozzie in time for the June 23rd deadline (remember I had him on my design wall over the winter?). A deadline reason to finish is more motivation for me than anything.

Let me mention that the quilting part of finishing a quilt is not my strong suit. I have a background in Graphic Design, so the design and colour part comes easier to me. I had more fun designing and building the piece, but when it came time for the quilting I was almost paralyzed with fear. Where do I start? How do I build this? What do I do in this area? How much is too much? I did take a one day free motion quilting class with Lorraine Stagness (excellent teacher!) a few months ago to warm up my skills. There came a time when I just had to let go of the practicing, put my fears aside and gather the courage to just go for it with Ozzie! So I put my “big girl panties” on and tried. It was really scary at first, then some things started to turn out well, then I became addicted to the possibilities. It was going well until my thread started breaking a lot and my usually wonderful Bernina 820 would only sew in one direction. ...my doubts came flooding in, and then I visited Michael at My Sewing Room here in Calgary, who gave me a crash course in tension, threads and needles (I owe him a 6 pack for that).

I stressed about the finishing, had my quilt done on the day of the deadline and in the end I am very happy with the results. This work represents who I am today. I heard on Friday, the opening day of this year’s Stampede, that there was a red first place ribbon beside my Ozzie! I went down for a look myself, thinking that I must have been the only entrant in this category. It was a VERY humbling experience to see my work hung amongst the many other beautiful works. In fact it's what gives me the jazz to make art quilts. It’s not about the ribbons for me, but to stand up and be counted among other talented traditional and art quilters. To be amongst such talented people is encouraging me to keep doing this with enthusiasm. I am already plotting about what to enter in next years Stampede Competition.

Now Saskatchewan member, Jaynie Himsl, has work in this show in Duncan, B.C.:

She posted about her piece recently on Facebook with this photo:

If you're in the area next month, be sure to stop by and take a closer look at what looks to be a fabulous exhibit!

On and Off Our Walls

It's time for the We-Hope-Spring-Comes-Soon Edition of On and Off Our Walls!  :-)

Calgary member, Alison Cowitz, has been busy; today she shares this work with you:

This is what’s been on my wall for the past few weeks. Meet “Ozzie”. I started him in a summer 2013 class at Along Came Quilting (Calgary) given by Roxanne Nelson, who is super talented (who can forget her parrot that was at Quilt Canada when it was in Calgary!) I was not the best student, as it was hard for me to work with tiny little pieces.

"Ozzie" at the outset

 I really didn’t see myself spending the next 5-10 years creating this piece. I had some other projects going on at the time the class was given, so I didn’t make much progress. However, I got back to work on it this past February. This is 5 weeks later… almost everyday I was able to work on it I had fun taking it in different directions. I still have the quilting to do, not my forté, but I’m excited about where my dog portrait is headed. 

"Ozzie" - pre-quilting

 Isn't he terrific?  Thanks for sharing, Alison; we look forward to seeing the quilted piece!

Photo courtesy of Central Alberta Quilt Guild

I HOPE YOU'LL JOIN ME

at the

Central Alberta Quilt Guild Show

Friday, April 4 and Saturday, April 5

Westerner Park, Red Deer

I hope to have a table in the refreshment area for the hours of 11 a.m. through 1 p.m. both days.  It would be great to meet and greet any and all SAQA Western Canada members who attend!  Look for a short-haired greying woman with glasses sitting at a table on which rests a plate of cookies.  :-)

I'll be hand-stitching facings on pieces that are going in a show and sale in Lacombe at the end of April, so grab a beverage at the refreshment counter and come by, take a load off your feet, enjoy a cookie and say "hi"!