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SAQA-Maine, a September treat
SAQA is the Studio Art Quilt Associates, a non-profit group to promote art quilting with members around the world. There are regional groups, including one for New England. Those of us in sparsely populated Maine –the state population is about 1.3 million, the same as San Antonio, Texas or San Diego, California!–live far enough from the majority of the regional group members in Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire and Vermont, that we don’t often get to the meetings. So Sarah Carpenter, Beth Berman and Wen Redmond had an idea an made it happen: SAQA-Maine retreat weekend in Searsport, Maine the weekend of Sept. 18th!
Beth VERY generously hosted much of the meeting in her home and new studio. Other meetings were at the hotel just a mile or two up the road and a nearby church (the evening show and tell…alas it was part of the event I couldn’t attend). I forgot to take pictures of the first part which was meeting, at Beth’s house, or when the workshops began. Various regional members offered to do demos or mini-workshops, and oh was it fun! Valerie Poitier’s talk on perspective (my right brain was confuddled but I did get it eventually!), as was Wen Redmond’s demo on making thermofax screens and printing with them. At least I finally remembered to take the camera out during my mono-printing session with Margaret Sheehan. I sure hope she comes back and does a two-day workshop near enough for me to take…talk about utter playtime! You can visit Margaret’s blog here and see some of the sheers featured below in the photo at the top…wow!
Here are the pics from that session:
Valerie Poitier looks stunning in Margaret Sheehan's sheer artcloth (also seen in the first photo of this blogpost)
Margaret S's red sheer mono-printed cloth---I LOVE that bird's nest design
And holding the red sheer up with the light from the open doorway behind...
I think this falls into the category of “Be Still my beating heart” and “I wanna do that NOW!”
Margaret explains some of the techniques used on this cloth
This piece of Margaret's shows how she used freezer paper resists when mono-printing
Yet another heavenly sheer--the synthetic sheers come from JoAnns mostly, the prom dress section, and obviously are vastly improved with paint
A different red sheer with sunswirls
Margaret showed us how to use heavy mil plastic drop-cloth, textile paint and common tools for surface design; notice the whisk.....
Transferring the mono-print (paint on plastic) onto the cloth is a tactile experience
In the upper left corner, Margaret pulls away the plastic with spiral she has just printed onto the cloth
The table I worked at! My stuff is on the near side and in the center
A closer look...here on my blue/green I used too much paint and lost definition. It is a learning process!
Even my paint tray was pretty!
one of my classmate's circle design...ooooh! I'm pretty sure she used an Afro/Hair pick for those marks
Drat I wish I could remember how she told me she made those marks....you can see this is addicting!
Again..I forget how shemade those purple marks, but I love them!
As you might gather, for a 2-hour session that was about an hour of demo and an hour hands-on, we the students really were inspired and went to town with our scraps. Thanks SO MUCH to Margaret for sharing her time, technique and paints! Next year we REALLY need to chip in to cover expenses for supplies…. Margaret, if you see this send me your snail mail address and I’ll either send you a fiver or a bit of hand-dyed as thanks!
October 14th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
What a beautiful fabrics! I wish I could follow this workshop as well. The results are stunning!
Marjolijn
October 15th, 2010 at 6:21 am
This looked like a wonderful gathering. These designs are amazing.
Judy
October 15th, 2010 at 8:16 am
OOO, That looks like such fun!
January 31st, 2011 at 8:58 am
Hi Sarah!
I have finally found this entry on your blog while looking up Valarie Poitier in Google search. This entry brought happy tears to my eyes as I remember how much FUN we had in Maine! You have captured a lot here, and I appreciate that.
I saw that you were coming to do a class for the Northern Light s Quilt guild in Lebanon, NH. Let me know when you will be in town, I live in Hanover and would love to see you. Also, the next SAQA weekend is in Vermont, Valarie and I will be there.
Were you at The Quilt Museum this past weekend? I didn’t get to talk to everyone there as I arrived late. It’s a lovely show. Worth the trip to see.
I look forward to playing with you again sometime.
Margaret