Touch is Live!

Entry from Marie McEachern, Alberta

We are so pleased that Touch the SAQA Western Canada Regional Trunk Show is ready to go out into the world. Bookings are now available. Details, and all the pieces in the show can be viewed virtually here.

Spotlight Auction Starts April 15th!

The SAQA Spotlight Auction is held during the SAQA Conference every year! The proceeds from this auction support SAQA exhibitions and programming. 

Anyone can bid, whether you are attending the conference or not. 

Details about how to bid can be found here.

Here are some of the pieces in the auction made by Western Canada Members. Support their work and add to your art collection.

Christine Johannink - From Scraps Comes Art

Janet Scruggs - Dendritic Dots

Jaynie Himsl - Floating

Margaret Blank - Spring Run-Off

Marie McEachern - G "Rounded"

Susan Selby - Garden Chives

Michelle Craigen - Purple Iris

2017 Trunk Show -- Samples to Inspire

Over a month ago in this space, we posted about the SAQA Trunk Show and the opportunities it afforded for trying on techniques, for getting exposure for your work, for automatic acceptance (no jury) and for having some fun.

Now, however, The End Deadline is Near!  That's right, colleagues!  If you've been procrastinating about entering this every-three-years opportunity -- you have a mere four days (and a few hours) left.  The deadline for your online entry is 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on November 30 -- which translates to 8:59 p.m. Pacific, 9:59 p.m. Mountain and 10:59 p.m. Central Standard Time.

Soooo...if you're needing a bit more inspiration, here are a few examples from your SAQA WC colleagues who've already submitted their entries...

From B.C., Terry Aske:

Croatian Door (C) 2016
Terry Aske

Terry's statement about her piece:

While visiting Croatia, I took a photo of this small rustic door, tucked under a flight of well-worn stone steps, and set deeply into a rough rock wall. The passage of time can be seen in the shape and surface of the door. I wondered: how old is it; what history has it seen; what might be behind it?

Techniques:  Digital image, computer enhanced, then printed on fabric.  Rock surfaces machine-quilted through one layer of batting.  Grout and door quilted through two layers, resulting in a dimensional trapunto effect.

From Alberta:

Margaret Blank, Mirror:

Autumn Colours (C) 2016
Margaret Blank

Margaret's statement about her piece:

I was inspired by the trees and the sky on the Central Alberta prairies in late September found in the view from my back lane.  Yes, the sky here is really that blue!

Marie McEachern, Calgary:

Off the Grid (C) 2016
Marie McEachern

All Marie would divulge is that she hand-dyed the fabric...


Mary Wilton, Camrose:

Ireland View (C) 2016
Mary Wilton

Mary was a painter before she was a quilter, and when she discovered painting on fabric...she became an art quilter.  She is now developing an entire body of work with painted backgrounds.  Mary took a quilting tour to Ireland last spring, which was the inspiration for this piece.

Okay; now you have your inspiration!   Translate a photo; go abstract; add surface design; paint a background -- it's your turn!

What are you waiting for?!                         

**********************************************************************************************************************************************

This is my last post as Editor of the SAQA WC blog...at least, for the foreseeable future.  I am handing the reins on to Val Wilson, Co-Rep for MB/SK...with my blessing.  Please give her your support, and send her your news to share with your SAQA WC colleagues.  You can reach her at v_wilson@mts.net.

I want to thank each and every one of you, SAQA WC colleagues, for your support, your feedback, and your faithful readership over the past three years as I served you in the Region.  I have no idea what's next for me in the SAQA world, beyond making a modest contribution to the Region's first-ever Regional Retreat in West Kelowna in May...but I welcome whatever comes!

Should one of you in Alberta decide you might be able to manage being Co-Rep here for a couple of years (the term is really only two years; I stayed on one more for a variety of reasons)...please get in touch with either Coleen Adderley (B.C.) or Val (as above)...or with SAQA Reps Coordinator Desiree (Desi) Vaughn. (Please note that my job as blog editor was by choice; it's not a requirement of whoever serves in Alberta! LOL!)

There is Co-Rep training provided as well as a manual and other materials -- and I have a box of goodies to pass on that I'd love to get out of my back room! ;-)

May SAQA continue to excite, educate and inspire you to show your work within the organization and elsewhere.  May you continue to use the opportunities it offers to build your confidence and skills as textile artists...and may you always remember that you whatever you contribute to any organization, you receive in return, many times over.

See you in West Kelowna in May, God willing! 'Bye for now!

At the opening of Western Threads
"Meet the Best of the West" Exhibit
Royal Alberta Museum, April 2014

A SAQA Benefit Auction Dream Collection: "Eclectic"

The start of the Annual SAQA Benefit Auction is less than two weeks away. How'd that happen?!

Darn!  I couldn't generate a good idea for a piece this year, and just realized that I missed the deadline to create a Dream Collection...by a mere four days.  Sigh.  Some years are like that, I guess!

But...I can follow the Auction closely from Diamond Day on September 16 through to the finish...and if I'm fortunate, I can find a piece I really like -- and buy it!  And I can share my own personal 'Dream Collection' with you, SAQA Western Canada colleagues...so here goes...it's an "Eclectic" bunch...

My SAQA Mentor, Bonnie Smith, has donated one of her signature 'swimmer' pieces...





My 15 x 15 Group colleague, Caro Higgs, has made a contribution that's pretty and peaceful...






And another colleague, Chantal Guillermet, has donated a still life in warm tones...






Then there's the piece by former Co-Rep (Atlantic Canada), now SAQA Board member, as well as a colleague and friend, Chris Nielsen...




SAQA Western Canada member, Gloria Daly of B.C., has donated one of her signature pieces as well.










And lovely, eccentric Gunnel, whom I met at the MCOTW opening in Stratford in May....


Then there's my friend Heather Dubreuil of Hudson, Quebec, whom I met at my first SAQA conference in Denver in 2011...and whose pieces remind me of the years I lived in Montreal...


And SAQA WC member from Saskatchewan, Jaynie Himsl -- my travelling companion to MCOTW, a firebrand who created an entire art festival in her home town of Weyburn throughout the summer of 2015...



My long-time friend, Jenny Lyon of California, whom I met at the conference in Santa Fe. She's a whole-cloth quilter extraordinaire; her piece makes me smile.





And Kathie Briggs, formerly of Michigan and now living in North Carolina, whom I also met in Santa Fe, 2013...




What about Lisa Ellis -- our new SAQA President?  I was blessed to enjoy her company at dinner and at brunch in Stratford at the MCOTW opening.  Young and full of energy, as expressed in the vibrancy of her contribution...



Then there's Maggie Vanderweit  (SAQA Central Canada), whose pieces in neutral tones generally make a statement...I met her in Portland at the conference in 2015.

And another fire-brand, SAQA WC member Marie McEachern of Calgary, whom I've known for years as a colleague, since our days together learning from Anna Hergert...Something different from her Calgary city-scapes...



Or maybe veteran textile artist Marianne Williamson, whom I've admired...and finally met at the conference in Portland, OR, in 2015...





What about Sherry Davis Kleinman, my room-mate at the Santa Fe Conference, and a dear friend?  My son got married this summer...maybe there's a gift opportunity there...

If I had a sweet little girl somewhere in my life who had a birthday coming up, I'd look no farther than this delightful piece by the fun and energetic Sue Bleiweiss...




And I can't forget my friend and inspiration, the 'I swear she never sleeps', most prodigious Susan Lenz.  I already have one of her Benefit Auction pieces on my studio wall...why not another?



SAQA WC member Terry Aske of B.C. has contributed this peaceful piece with an oriental feel...





While my friend and fellow student in Elizabeth Barton's Master Class (2015), Wil Opio Oguta, would have me sail away to forget my troubles...

See what I mean?  With the SAQA Benefit Auction it's easy to get carried away.

I trust that if you make art, you also find room to show art in your home.  Share it with friends. Give it as gifts.
What collection would fill your dreams?