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!

On and Off Our Walls: Cathie Ugrin

It's been over a year since I posted under this banner, and I'm delighted to do so again!

Cathie Ugrin, a SAQA member from Manitoba, recently reported that her piece, Listen Softly, has been accepted into the Canadian Quilters' Association 2016 National Juried Show.  When I congratulated her, I asked her to share with us a bit about the piece, and here's what she wrote:

Thanks for asking me to send you info on 'Listen Softly'. 

It was created as a bit of respite after a very busy time for me; CRAFTED show at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in November and participation in one of our local studio boutique's December/ January show of 12 Small Pieces by 12 Artists for which I made 20 pieces just in case. 

I love the feeling of being sheltered and alone in our local forest in the middle of winter on a snowy still day so that is what inspired me. I am also always aware that the frozen ground I am walking on is just a blanket covering all that rich organic life lying dormant underneath. Basically, these concepts are what make the two parts of the piece. Then I added hundreds of small snowflakes throughout the light section of the 'phantom wood' and a glittering starry presence at the top. As I was making Listen Softly, I realized it met the criteria for SAQA's Tranquility and Turmoil exhibit so I did enter their Call for Entry as well as Quilt Canada's. Unfortunately, it was not accepted by SAQA but I am so pleased it is going to Quilt Canada.

Here's a photo of the piece plus a couple of detail shots:

Listen Softly

Back detail

Front detail

Cathie's Artists' Statement for her piece reads as follows:

Tranquility lives within the quiet still spaces of nature. Here among the trees of a phantom winter wood, a wondrous and mysterious presence glimmers down from above whilst the dormant layers of a vibrant, living earth lay below, sleeping under a dense, snowy blanket. Inspiration flutters down like countless luminescent snowflakes as imagination stirs. There is room here to shift the tensions and turmoil of life and breathe fully. A place to rediscover the innocence of peace. Freedom to pause and listen softly.

Congratulations on answering more than one Call for Entry with this lovely piece, Cathie, and for your acceptance at the NJS.  Best wishes for continued success!

What's happening On and Off Your Walls?  If you're working on a special project, or have exciting exhibit news to share, please contact Margaret (see sidebar), who's the current Blog Editor.  Thank you!

On and Off Our Walls: Terry Aske

Recently, B.C. member Terry Aske posted on her blog the delightful news that one of her pieces has been featured on the cover of the Spring 2015 issue of The Canadian Quilter, a publication for members of the Canadian Quilters Association.  I asked Terry if she would share with her SAQA colleagues. Here's what she wrote:

When I was invited by the Canadian Quilters’ Association (CQA/ACC) to donate a 12 x 16 inch quilt for the ‘It’s Time for Colour!’* traveling quilt show, I had several ideas for colorful subject matter - tulips, fall foliage and sunsets all came to mind.   But I decided to create yet another version of one of my favorite themes – Rainy Day People.

I live in Vancouver, B.C. which is located in a spectacular scenic location between the ocean and mountains. With a temperate sea climate, we have mild but very dark, wet, dreary winters. After weeks of gray rainy weather, I’m always cheered when I see a pedestrian carrying a brightly colored umbrella. The idea of a quilt featuring people with bright umbrellas percolated in my head for a long time before I finally incorporated into my fiber art.  

In 2012, I created the first of my Rainy Day People series (the title ‘Rainy Day People’ was inspired by a wonderful song by Gordon Lightfoot, a great Canadian singer-songwriter).

To date, I have created 6 pieces with this theme, all featuring dark pedestrians carrying colorful umbrellas - including one for the SAQA 2013 online auction, and one for the SAQA 25th Anniversary Trunk Show.*   More information about the series can be found here in my blog.

For the 'It's Time for Colour!' exhibit, instead of dark adult pedestrians, my art quilt features two small girls with huge adult-sized umbrellas (based on photos I took of a little girl last year).   I dressed them in bright, cheerful colors to contrast with the rainy gray background, and added colorful reflections on the wet ground.

I was thrilled when the editor of The Canadian Quilter magazine asked if I would like to have my 'Rainy Day Girls’ on the cover of the Spring issue - now they are Cover Girls! 

Terry's "Cover Girls"

In addition to being on the cover of this Spring 2015 issue, Terry's quilt appears again in Laine Canivet's article about the "It's Time for Colour" exhibit, page 48 -- and in the same issue, an article about the Fibre Art Network's exhibit, "Abstracted", for which she partnered with her sister to create a realistic and an abstracted piece -- "Solitude I" (Terry's) and "Solitude II" (her sister, Anne de Verteuil's).

Congratulations, Terry! 

*"It's Time for Colour" has been travelling through Canada in two shows of 19 pieces each under the auspices of the Children's Wish Foundation.  Those of you who are attending Quilt Canada in Lethbridge, AB this year (June 4-6) will have an opportunity to see all 38 pieces of this exhibit at the end of it's one-year tour.

**Terry's contribution to the SAQA 25th Anniversary Trunk Show is touring as part of "Trunk Show B", currently travelling in the Alabama/Arkansas/Mississippi/Louisiana Region through the end of March and going from there to Southern Indiana (April) and from there to the Catskill Mountain Quilters Hall of Fame and the Calico Geese, Liberty, New York (May 11).

If you're part of an exhibit, if you've won an award, if you've been published, if you're having a creative adventure of any kind -- please share it with your SAQA colleagues!  To tell us what you've been up to, contact margblank@xplornet.ca -- and we'll work out the details!