AK SAQA April 2017 Meeting

The April 2017 AK SAQA Regional Meeting was held on Tuesday April 11 at the Kaladi Brothers on Brayton. 

We had a great turn out—Maria Shell , Cat Larrea , Carrie Payne , Gail Ramsay  Jeannie Bench, Amy Meissner,  Bonny Riveria, Barb Hanson, and Gene Looman were in attendance.

Amy Meissner gave a great presentation on a public art project she spent many years making happen.  You can read the full story here on her blog .

We discussed the details of our fall juried members show Art Cloth North III at the blue hollomon gallery. The details about submitting work are being finalized . This information will be sent to all members later this spring. If you are hoping to make new work to submit for consideration, the tentative deadline for submissions is August 15, 2017. 

Show Tell was great as always.

Jeannie Bench shared two new pieces.

Gene Looman showed his current thread work.

Bonny Riveria shared new work from her birch wood series.

Carrie Payne has given her signature girls rain boots for the season.

At the end of the meeting Carrie gave us our pieces back from the AK SAQA Regional Members Show at the Girdwood Visual Arts Center. 

We hope you will join us in May. We will be meeting on Tuesday, May 9, 2017 from 10AM to 12PM at the Kaladi Brothers on Brayton.  Upcoming meeting will include a short presentation from SAQA member Gail Ramsay on an Elementary School Quilt Project she did.

AK SAQA March 2017 Meeting

Jan Wallace, Diane Melms, Bonny Rivera, Carrie Payne, Kate Beebe, Rebecca Starry, Jeannie Bench and Gail Ramsey were all in attendance at the March 2017 Alaska SAQA meeting.

The Alaska SAQA Regional Member's Show at the Girdwood Center for Visual ArtsBonny was impressed with the site and the art presented. Carrie reported no negative comments about the SAQA show. Show closes on March 30, 2017, and we can pick up the pieces then or at the next SAQA meeting from Carrie. Members need to coordinate with Carrie for pickup if either of these two options don’t work. Thanks from the group to Carrie for making all of this happen.

Art Cloth North III at Blue Hollomon Gallery
This is a juried show, AK SAQA members can submit up to three pieces for consideration.  Pieces should be examples of your voice as an artist. Proposals will be due late summer (mid-August?). A complete application will include the following--head shot of artist, photos of submissions, and an artist statement. Work is not to have been shown in Anchorage (Girdwood is OK). Must meet SAQA definition of art quilt.

Prepping Quilts for HangingThe standard is a 4” pocket for hanging slat, usually need to include hanging rod/slat, Australia requires bag to hold everything (including packing material). Type of rod? Flats better since round rods often negatively affect the hang/drape of the quilt; if wood is used, cover it with an acrylic based sealer to prevent wood from damaging fibers; can use cheap yardstick or ruler. Conceal the rod as much as possible, even painting ends to match quilt; suggestion that if quilt is to be sold, include everything that will be needed to hang it in the home/office; when rolling quilts, normally roll bottom to top and suggested that face of the quilt should be on the outside of the roll to reduce small wrinkles on the face.

Diane reported on her Homer show and had a slide show of the Bunnell Street Art Center with quilts hung.

Jan Wallace reported on her visit to the Visions Art Museum in San Diego. Exhibit included show of works by Susan Else as well as two juried shows of member works. Their process of selecting member works includes frequently checking member websites to select items that fit into a theme or are of interest – they make requests of members as desired. 

Jan reported that she will have a show at Kaladi’s in Soldotna during the month of April.

Kate showed some thread work using wash away stabilizer.

Diane showed a hand painted/stamped/dyed quilt that didn’t make it into the Bunnell show.

Carrie showed several small quilts, one of which will go to SAQA for thier auction.

Bonny showed a quilt of birch trees to be displayed in her show at Doriola’s in July. 

This led to discussion on different techniques for quilting of “layered” quilts to allow for textures to stand out.

There as a group discussion on ways to handle circular and “non-square” quilts. Ideas included using floral wire, round collapsible fans with wire rims, etc.

Jan Wallace reminded us of the art show at the Kenai Fine Arts studio. Entries due by May 27 and she is planning to be at the SAQA meeting on May 9 and can take them down if desired. She informed us that the Center is having a wearable arts show in November.

Gail reported that she is submitting designs for a Row by Row quilt at Quilted Raven and showed photos. 

We hope you will join us for our next meeting which is scheduled for Tuesday April 11 from 10AM -12NOON at the Kaladi Brothers on Brayton.

This blog post was prepared from notes taken by Carrie Payne.

AK SAQA Regional Members Show

The Alaska SAQA region had a member’s show at the Girdwood Center for Visual Arts in Gridwood, Alaska for the month of March. Many of our members exhibited work.

Amy Meissner

Cat Larrea

Maria Shell

Carrie Payne

Kate Beebe

Gene Looman

Krista Fleckenstien

Bonny Riveria 

Karen Fogarty

Jeannie Bench

Diane Melms

Gail Ramsay

Nan Thompson

Jan Wallace

All members would like to thank Carrie Payne for excellent organizational and exhibiting. She made this show happen. Thank you Carrie!

We are looking forward to having the juried Art Cloth North III at the Blue Hollomon Gallery in November.  Stay tuned for details on that show.

AK SAQA February 2017 Meeting

Our Feburary 2017 AK SAQA Regional Meeting was held on Tuesday February 14th at the Kaladi Brothers on Brayton. We had a great turn out—Maria Shell, Cat Larrea , Diane Melms , Carrie Payne, Gail Ramsay, Jan Wallace, Jeannie Bench, Bonnie Riveria, Gene Looman,  and Kate Beebe. We also welcomed new member Gene Looman and guest Karen Fogarty.

We discussed our upcoming member’s show at the Girdwood Center for Visual Arts   Members Gail Ramsay and Carrie Payne are planning to hang the show on March 1. The opening reception for the show is Saturday March 4, 2017 from 6PM - 8PM at the center. 

Diane Melms has a solo show opening at the Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska the same weekend. She shared her maquette of the show which was really interesting to see.

AK SAQA member Mary Gerken (not present) met with some of the Hawaii SAQA members to continue to move the concept of a joint show forward. We have settled on the size 12’’ x 24’’ or smaller and the theme Non-Contiguous. 

Amy Meissner is continuing to work with Diane Melms (who coordinated our previous shows) and the Blue Hollomon Gallery to make a November 2017 Alaska SAQA juried exhibition happen. It will be called Art Cloth North III. We are looking at an August 15th deadline for submitting work. Each member may submit three pieces for consideration. Work should not have been exhibited in Anchorage before. Complete details will be announced at up coming meetings. 

Show Tell was great as always.

Cat Larrea shared her new work that just got into the SAQA traveling exhibition Textile Posters.  

She wasn’t ready for us to share the quilt on the blog yet, so only those of us who were at the meeting got to see its amaziness.

But as you can see, Cat is very happy to have gotten into the show.

Gene Looman shared a collection of his handmade jackets.

Jan Wallace continues her exploration of working 3-D.

Kate Beebe is experimenting again—this time with lots of glitter.

Bonny Riveria shared new work. 

Jan’s guest and now new SAQA member, Karen Fogarty shared her beautiful dolls. 

She also gave us a bit of insight into how she builds one.

Jeannie Bench showed her latest bead work on “quilts”. 

Gene Looman and Diane Melms have both completed Spotlight Auction Quilts for the upcoming SAQA conference. 

We hope you will join us for our meeting. It will on Tuesday, March 14, 2017 from 10AM to 12PM at the Kaladi Brothers on Brayton. Many members will be on spring break, so this is an informal get together without a agenda. It is always good time!