BJ Parady at the Fine Line creative Arts Center

Greetings All,
BJ Parady and Ann Miller Titus will be featured in a gallery show at the Fine Line creative Arts center in St. Charles, Illinois from January 6 - February 12, 2010. The opening reception will be held on Friday, January 8th from 5:30 - 8:00 pm. Much of the work will feature fabric printed using the disperse transfer dye method, an indirect way of getting color onto withe cloth. The work is then hand or machine stitched, framed, mounted, or left to hang like art quilts.

Fine Line is a great friend to fiber arts. They offer many classes for aspiring fiber artists, including dyeing, weaving, and spinning. Come and join us at the reception, or stop by during the show.


(Autumn Fire above by BJ)

This exhibition features Karen's "Decorative Stitch Tread Painting" techniques and the students interpretation of her process.

FIBERISTIC JOURNEYS

QUILT EXHIBIT TO VISIT:

FIBERISTIC JOURNEYS, an exhibit of original quilts will be held at the Anderson Art Center, 121 66^th St., Kenosha, WI on January 24 thru March 21, 2010. The Opening Reception will be on Jan. 24, 2010 from 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM. Exhibitors will be Robbi Joy Eklow, Ann Fahl, Beth Gilbert, Denise Havlan, Annette M. Hendricks and Rachel Wetzler.

Clairan Ferrono is hosting her 4th "Open Studio" on Sunday, December 6, 2009 at 5432 S Dorchester, in Chicago, Illinois from 2 pm -6 pm.

There will art and note cards for sale. Plus food, and fun for all. Hope to see you there!

Join Darcy Berg at Gallery 7 on Sunday, November 29th from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. The gallery is located at 116 N. Chicago St. - Suite 102, Joliet, Illinois 60432 (next to the Rialto Theater). Refreshments will be served and music provided by Alicia Gummess and Ron Sarver. Darcy will be featuring art quilts, garments, and handmade art dolls.

Wild At the Edges

"Wild at the Edges: Inspiration from a Creative Life" is a quirky little
tome meant to delight and inspire. It has sixteen essays, little treasures of
poems hidden here and there, some encouraging thoughts about life and art,
and, if I may say so myself, stunning photos of art and nature.

A preview of more than a dozen pages is here:

http://bit.ly/7RMmrS

25% of all profits will be donated to the American Cancer Society through
Fiberart For A Cause. Fiberart For A Cause has donated more than $190,000 to
the ACS.

--
Virginia A. Spiegel

My new book: "Wild at the Edges: Inspiration from a Creative Life"
http://bit.ly/7RMmrS

Website: http://www.virginiaspiegel.com
Blog: http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/blog/
Tweets: http://twitter.com/vspiegel

Greetings All,

SAQA member Bonnie Peterson will be one of the artists featured on Arts Across Illinois, airing Friday, November 20th at 7:30 pm and again Saturday, November 21st at 4:30 pm on WTTW channel 11 or check you local listing. Congratulations!

PAQA Water Exhibit

Many of the members of SAQAIL/WI are also members of PAQA. A show that I curated in 2006 called PAQA Water has finished traveling. If you are interested in viewing all the quilts from the show you can go to
PAQA Water to view the show's 18" square quilts and their self portraits and see all the venues it traveled to in the three years it was together.

I Didn't Know That a Quilt Could be Political

Greetings All,

SAQA members Casey Puetz, Darcy Berg, JoAnn Deck, Joy Lavrencik, Kathleen Irons Sweeney, Sandy Schweitzer, Sharron Evans, Sharon Malec, Susan Jackan, Suzanne Mouton Riggio, Laura Wasilowski, and Trish Williams are all participating in and exhibit titled "I Didn't Know That a Quilt Could be Political". The exhibit is at the Naperville Cultural Center in Naperville IL at 55 South Mainstreet, suite 211 (November 1 until December 6th) and a closing artists reception will be held on December 6th from 3 pm - 6 pm.

Greetings All,

Member Gail Baar (left) writes that she is an art quilter living in Buffalo Grove, IL and is looking for a small group of art quilters who live in the area who would like to get together once a month to show their work, encourage each other, etc. It seems from looking at the regional list that there are quite a few quilters in the northwest suburbs! She would be willing to start this in her home, and would like people to respond to her via email and let her know the days and times they are available. She thinks this could be a great way for art quilters to share their ideas, help each other and make connections with others! You can contact her at Gail.Baar@gmail.com and you can check out her blog at: gjbquilts.blogspot.com

SOFA Chicago

Greetings All,

The 16th annual SOFA Chicago, the critically acclaimed "Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair" returns to Navy Pier's Festival Hall (600 E. Grand Ave) Nov 6 - 8 and volunteers are needed to man the SAQA booth all three days. The hours are Friday and Saturday from 11am until 8 pm and Sunday from noon until 6 pm. You get free access to the event, meet other SAQA member and invite other to join. Please email me if you can help us out at: handworksbytrish@yahoo.com

Quilt Artist of the Week: Clairan Ferrono

Clairan Ferrono was chosen by "Creative Textiles & Quilting Art" as quilt artist of the week and she has two pieces in "Breaking Boundaries" exhibition at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Kalamazoo, MI, opening August 29th. She also has six pieces on display at Gallery 50 in Traverse City, MI opening September 1st and finally she will have another piece in an exhibit in Chicago at The St. Paul Cultural Center, 2215 W. North Ave, Chicago, IL. This is a members exhibit of the CWCA (Chicago Women Caucus for Art) titled "Common Threads; All Things Connected" Opening reception Saturday, Oct 17th from 4 - 6 pm. Gallery hours are Thursday, Friday, Saturday from 12 - 5 pm each day.

Karen Linduska

Karen Linduska made the cover of June/July 2009 issue of Quilting Arts, along with an article "In the Spotlight".

Karen will also be teaching a 3 day "Decorative Stitch Thread Painting" class titled "Join the Decorative Revolution" at the Baby-Lock Tech 2009 conference in St. Louis at the end of August.

Karen will also be doing a 2 day demo of her technique at the Sister City Quilt Show on September 12th and 13th in Metropolis, IL. This is sponsored by the National Quilt Museum. Karen will also have 12 of her art quilts on display at this show and will be giving a lecture at 4:00 on Sunday, September 13th. There will be quilt activities in the Sister Cities of Metropolis, IL and Paducah, KY both days.

Innovation in Textile 8

Greetings All,

Several regional SAQA members will be participating in Innovations in Textiles 8. Judy Coates Perez will be giving two workshops and a lecture September 17 - 20. Check out her blog for more details at "Painted Threads". Innovation in Textiles is a biennial collaborative event in St. Louis, MO that investigates the state of contemporary textile arts. Clairan Ferrono, Kathy Weaver, and Trish Williams will also be participating by exhibiting in "Made by Hand" a regional juried exhibition sponsored by the St. Louis Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art and the exhibit will be at Crossroads Art Studio and Gallery, 501 N. Kingshigway, St. Charles MO from Sept 8 - October 8, 2009. For more information check out the WCA-STL blog.

A professional graphic artist – Some one you should know

When I decided to start selling my patterns wholesale I realized they needed to look more professional. My friend Dotty Carringi who owns Dot Designs, from my church, The Unitarian Universalist Church of Elgin, is a professional graphic artist who has been working in the business for over 20 years. I approached her about redesigning my pattern covers. Here are two examples of products she has done for me, the pattern cover on the left and a wholesale brochure on the right. It really made a big difference in the look and the sales of my patterns.

She has done many other items for me as well. She designed my new business cards, and my post cards as well as several other printed materials that I use. I have a teaching brochure that I send out with all my web orders and hand out at shows, it looks very professional now.

Dotty works well over the internet and is a very kind and easy to work with woman. Laura Wasilowski and Anne Lullie have both used her services as well and have been very happy with the results.

Wisconsin Landscape by Laura Wasilowski

Regional Meeting in Madison, WI
Lois Jarvis has set up a regional dinner meeting in conjunction with Quilt Expo in Madison, WI. It is open to all SAQA members, members of the Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists, and Milwaukee Art Quilters.
Time: Thursday September 10, 2009 at 6:00pm
Place: Clarion Suites Madison-Central, 2110 Rimrock Road, Madison, WI 53713
Cost: $30 for either Chicken Marsala or vegetarian selection Mediterranean Primavera

To reserve your spot please send a check made out to Lois Jarvis for $15 to:
Lois Jarvis
4625 Tokay Blvd
Madison, WI 53711

Women Made Members exhibit

Greetings All,

Friday night I went to the reception of Woman Made Gallery Members exhibit and I got the chance to meet the fabulous Kathy Weaver (right) and her mix-media talking robot. I was delighted not just by Kathy but all of the wonderful art/artists that were in attendance. The gallery was pack and I did not have my camera. Thanks to Joyce Owens for posting this one on Facebook.

A Sense of Direction: Sightlines

I encourage all SAQA IL/WI members to consider sending a Request For Consideration for the invitational A Sense of Directions: Sightlines. This exhibit will have a catalog and a traveling exhibit. Each of the fourteen invited artists will complete between five and eight artworks on the them of her/his choice. The deadline to submit is Request For Consideration (free and quite informal) is August 15. The prospectus can be found from the member's home page of the SAQA website here: http://www.saqa.com/index.aspx or I would be happy to send you a pdf of the prospectus. Virginia@virginiaspiegel.com

Virginia A. Spiegel
Website: http://www.virginiaspiegel.com
Blog: http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/blog/
Tweets: http://twitter.com/vspiegel

Milwaukee Art Quilters group

Congrats to Milwaukee Art quilters group;

They won an award for their quilts here at AQS Knoxville show. I was at the awards ceremony and got to hear about it first hand!

Anne Lullie

Woman Made Gallery-Exhibition

Kathy Weaver has a piece in "The Member's Show" at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago. The opening is Friday, July 31st from 6 to 9 pm and the address is 685 N. Milwaukee Ave. "The openings are always lots of fun and very friendly. There are also lots of cute places to eat in the area."

Hope to see those of you who can make it on Friday!!

Kathy

Artist captures history in fabric

This is a very nice article about one of our members Suzanne Riggio. Check it out.

Yellow Chair by Laura Wasilowski

Photography Services
I have a bad case of fish-eye photo. When taking photos of my art quilts, my little digital camera cannot be placed distant enough from the work in my small studio space to produce a nice square image of the quilt. And the studio lighting is something like that found in Clan of the Cave Bear.
But now I have discovered the friendly photographers of Media Services at NIU (Northern Illinois University, DeKalb IL).
The price is right, about $75 for 10 quilts including a full shot and 1 detail. Turn around time is about a week and you receive a CD master of the images as TIFFs and a color print out as well. Call first to set up a delivery time, 815-753-6676. I highly recommend them. (No affiliation although I am an old graduate and once ate at the cafeteria.)

New blog

This is the first issue of the SAQA IL/WI blog. Our purpose is to give our regional membership the opportunity to unite and post pertinent information about our art work. I am still working on this site and will add information as needed and requested. Let's make this a group work and find the time to share with our fellow SAQA IL/WI'es.