Now Where Can I Hide It? By Ms. V

You know you are losing what few marbles you have when you start hiding quilt supplies from yourself. Oh wait, and loosing scissors when you know you have at least twenty pair. I spent the first ten years of marriage not buying fabric because I believed everyone when they said I had enough and I needed to save and spend on the family.

I spent the second ten years of marriage, having decided 'they' were wrong, hiding fabric in every nook and cranny, in the back of the car, on hangers in my closet, unpacking quickly when the hubby went on an Army Reserve Weekend tour, and even using the basement and the top of the kids closets. Now why do we do that?  Especially as the dining room table was my work space and I had to disassemble it every Sunday for the family dinner and packed everything up in plastic bags, never to be seen again as a new project emerged...with new pins, scissors, fabric, patterns...sound familiar?

I have spent the last ten plus years trying to find all the wonderful fabric, rulers, scissors…

found 22 pair, must have five duplicates of some and have relegated others to the paper cutting bin. I have decided as I am getting close to 36+ years with this dear man, that I have finally grown up enough, or found my right mind, or had an epiphany, enough therapy, or just felt one day, what the heck I work every day, I deserve to do, be, have, or some such nonsense, my art work and supplies without hiding everything worrying about someone else's opinion, his, theirs, mine upsetting my artistic flow.  Especially since everytime I packed up my things and put them away it took a shopping trip to reenergize myself again...am I rambling? ?Well at least I am not shopping. LOLROTF. 

I can remember my grandmother saying things like that, in my right mind, wait I am a grandma, now, is that what it takes??? and I thought she was a bit nuts. Well I have finally arrived and nuts is pretty good, feels pretty good, tastes pretty good, and sits well in my stomach. Not to mention the backbone I finally found, and that feels good too. Why did it take so long?  Maybe it is a sign that I have matured, or finally found myself, or just given myself permission to be me. Or maybe having lived a bit I have finally decided what I wanted to do when I grew up.

I am not going to hide my ‘stuff’ or ‘junk’ or artistic equipment or paraphernalia any more. So don’t be surprised if you stop by and find my living room, dining room, and spare bedrooms converted into a studio. All the kinks have not been worked out but during my short spell of illness a couple years ago I must have grown some…or lost some, let’s call them marbles, I like balls better but my five brothers and DH tell me I don't have any, but I could swear I had some somewhere.  Any who I love my things, the colors, the shapes, the inspiriation I get from them and finally I am surrounded by them and I feel wonderful!

Now I am trying to figure out where to put it all. Wait, right here out in the open...LOL! He, my DH, was peeking over my shoulder when I typed this and I just found out he knew all
along. ☺

SAQA New England News...Colchester, VT Event

Dear Reader,

I had the great pleasure to attend the Workshop Event in Colchester, VT this weekend. Margaret Sheehan was the hosting SAQA Rep and Alexandra Nickerson was the event planner and hosting SAQA member.

March 25-27, 2011 


It was an exciting opportunity for SAQA members.


Two workshops were offered:


Approaching Galleries - Rae Harrell, owner of Rae Harrell Gallery, and
From a Juror's Perspective Valerie Poitier, guest curator/juror and SAQA Co-chair of the "No Holds Barred" exhibit at the NE Quilt Museum and SAQA MA/RI co-rep.


I must say that Alexandra did an excellent job selecting the speakers, location, and studio's for the event. As both presenter and participant I felt we all came away with a reminder or much better view of what it takes to put on an exhibit. What it takes to participate in an exhibit. Whether or not we were in the game, or wanted to be in that particular game.

Friday night's dinner was great, even if I couldn't eat. The company and discussion was worth the trip. Saturday was packed from morning to late night with the two workshops and an opportunity to share our work with each other, simply smashing quilts were unpacked and unrolled. The works of art and techniques were very different.

Here are some of the areas discussed:
- The decisions and choices the curator, juror, gallery owner is faced with.
-What a gallery owner or representative is looking for and what you/we as artists need to provide that person so that we may be represented at the highest level of professionalism.
-Bio, Artist statement, Artist Statement, CV, Education.
-Pros & Cons of Exhibiting.
-Personal development, build courage by doing.
-Where you are now, where you see yourself going.
-How to get the best out of the resources available to you.
-SAQA site, we took a short on-line tour.

Sunday was an extra-ordinary day. We rode further up into the hills of VT. The trip took us to the most, and I mean most wonderful studio. Dianne Shullenberger, fabric artist shared her gallery and studio spaces with us in a gracious and melodious manner. Yes it was a pleasure to the ear and the eye. Her work and space was for me, like a grand banquet. Everything I would wish to see, crafted by a master, with the proper spaces to put them in. What more could this artist want, I got to see a working gallery and a working studio! That my friends... is one of my dreams...and it feels closer after this weekend.

All in all this was another spectacular New England Weekend. The weather favored us by being sunny, crisp, and a bit snappy with cold. We travelled back to Massachusetts having experienced the best of VT, the best of SAQA, and the best times.

Regards,
Ms. V

Weaving in process...quilt to follow of cropped areas of the finished piece.

This is one of the pictures that shows some of the early drawings and inspiration pieces I looked at prior to starting the piece. In the center is an old copy of a mask I found in the studio and it spoke to me on many levels. I had to pin it to the loom and some how incorporate it into the piece. The sketches are my own.

Next we have my work area in the studio I was using in NC. This room was a magnificent space that I had a small corner of. I was able to work any where in the room but the weaving happened in this spot near an open doorway to another work space.

I realized later I should have added a few of the earlier pictures so that you could see this piece before it became a quilt. That is on it's way, for now I am sharing the weaving. These were a few steps along the way. What you do not see, as I do not have his permission, is my dear mentor. He encouraged me in such a way that I was able to go from making small quilted squares to considering enlarging them and even weaving some of them on this eight by ten foot loom...that I built. I built the loom because the other one was in use. The things we do for the love of the art, or I just could not wait...to see it loom, yeah that was a pun.