Quilt Festival...The Brush...The Whistler

In my neck of the woods "Quilt Festival", "Brush" and "Whistler" used in the same sentence can reference only one thing: the New England Quilt Museum's Quilt Festival in Lowell MA. It concluded yesterday.

Note: In this photo my work "Diaspora" is on left and "Dusk" on right at The Whistler.

My Sister in Cloth buddy Yvette Howard and I drove up on Thursday so we would be there when it opened and not miss a thing in the chock-o-block events that traditionally pack this weekend.

I can truthfully say we were both disappointed. The Museum downsized the number of vendors to the outskirts of one floor of the auditorium where the exhibit has been featured since it moved from the much larger, more modern Tsongas Coliseum.

We usually "win" some treasure at their annual auction on Thurs evening, but they discontinued that. They also discontinued having classes during the event, which is a shame as I think it brings in more people and introduces more people to teachers' work (a win-win from my point of view).

The museum also had different hours from the quilt festival (10-6) itself. The museum closed at 4pm (except for Gallery Night on Fri)...so you could take the shuttle there and cool your heels until the next one came along. We saw scores (okay...10-25) waiting disappointedly. We walked everywhere, not caring what the shuttle was up to.

Enough of the downside! To quote Lucy (of Peanuts fame): I want ups, ups and more ups!

So here I am reflected in the window of The Brush gallery taking a photo of my work (boats on r). The exhibit is terrific! Geri Condon's piece is great...just to the left as you enter...to the right is Betty Busby's two wonderful undersea pieces. OH...I was nearby when Betty's Garibaldi

sold...I was so excited for her I impulsively gave the buyer a big hug and took her pic to send to Betty. How lame is that?

Everyone...okay, an exaggeration..lots of quilt artists were there. SAQA/MA regional meeting was in the morning on Saturday and both the Brush and the Whistler hosted opening that afternoon.
Pictured here (l-r) are Karen Bettencourt, Rayna Gillman (aka the best blogger who posted all three days...go read her comments) and Norma Schlager at The Whistler House Art Museum's opening, standing in front of Bev Fine's work (one of my favorites there). Rayna and I shared quarters...she connected with and introduced us to several local artists (lots of fun!! as you can imagine)

I missed taking photos of so many friends that I really enjoyed catching up with. Had dinner with Sandy Gregg...her work at The Brush is gorgeous.

So. Net Net. While disappointing, Lowell is still an art quilter's destination. One just doesn't need to get there during the Festival. Fortunately the exhibits that are so wonderful are up all month. So, next year, my buddy (s) and I will stop in Lowell, see both venues, make sure we have lunch at LaBoniche (our favorite restaurant), stop into Western Avenue galleries to see what Friends of Fiber/Linda Dunn/Tatja Cottrell/et al are up to and travel on to the Mancuso show which is always in August.

Rayna's Class Part Two

Today was Silkscreening. Now, THIS is really fun....yesterday was partial fun (and some frustration). But today I found several techniques, using the silkscreen, that I found very satisfying.

Pictured at left is one of our "Sisters", Janine Anderson-Bays. She's showing us the last piece she did at the end of the day and she sure got my vote for "class star". It is glorious. She used the screen to which she had applied a design with glue as the resist earlier in the day. On a gray, blowy day it made us all smile.

Thank you, Rayna, for a wonderful weekend! Your work is inspiring and your workshops are informative, invigorating and .... a great big, juicy HOOT!

Rayna's here!

Rayna Gillman was invited to our group for a weekend of workshops.  Today was Gelatin Printing and it was so much fun! Tomorrow we will start Silk Screening...and learning how to save some of our stash that we've each have decided is too dated for what we are using now. 

 I'm so happy with the prospect of recycling some of my collection that I know I'll never use again.  Occasionally my group has "exchanges" of fabric but I still have way too much fabric...adding to it can make me feel just the slightest bit guilty, but recycling, well, it's almost virtuous!  Repurposing!   That's it!  It's going from dull and uninteresting to layered, complex, and....most importantly...usable.