Daily Blog - TheQuiltShow.com

Fiber Arts for a Cause

Byron, Illinois, USA, May 16, 2008 - The online sale of only 209 collages raised more than $13,000 during Collage Mania, a Fiberart For A Cause fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, held May 5 and 6, 2008. The collages included art quilts, paper, and mixed fiber collages. They were donated by artists around the world, including Slovakia, Germany, Ireland, Israel and England.

Pictured above is Eye Spy by Sherryl Buchler.

The collages will remain online as a resource for fiber artists.

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San Jose Quilt Museum Current Exhibits

San Jose, CA, USA - The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles has several current exhibits that you may want to check out if you are in the area. They are:

Core Memory/Peripheral Vision, featuring the work of the 8 most renowned digital jacquard artists of today.
Pixels and Pieces, which considers how quiltmakers' use of one-piece patterns anticipated the way computers use pixels to create abstract patterns and pictoral images.
Advanced Geometry:Gloria Hansen, a selection of art quilts by a self-described computer nerd and one of the world's foremost experts on computer-generated quilt design. Pictured above is Perspectives II: Going Forward by Looking Back by Gloria Hansen, 2001

All exhibits are on display from April 1 - June 8, 2008. To learn more, visit the museum's website.

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Quilt Market--Booth Building

Quilts, quilt hangers, hooks, racks, samples and product has to be unpacked and displayed where the throngs of quilt shop owners can see what they will bring back to you. Here Dane from Joen Wolfrom Designs begins the process.

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Quilt Market--Moving In

The aisles are numbered. The floors are set with padding and carpet. The tables are brought in. Aluminum poles create an outline of the booth covered by curtains. Fork lifts bring in pallets of merchandise while special boxes are wheeled in. Quilt Market is being set up.

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Someone got side tracked!

Hey wait a minute!!! I thought it was supposed to be about fabric, books and patterns - but look what caught Ricky's attention.................lucky thing the store was closed - it could have been a costly stop - Like the mother of the groom dress I found (and bought) in Portland OR! - While attending market!

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Market

When it is spring and we are on the road, chances are it includes Spring market. Market is where quilt stores check out the latest and greatest for YOU! Market is where they decide where and how to spend their pennies. For folks like Ricky and myself it is a time of gathering with friends - this year market is being held in Portland, Or. LOVE this city. First night? Fish flambe at a most fabulous Thai resteraunt - with Ricky, John and Matt (my beloved web master for www.alexandersonquilts.com) Yummie, yumnmie - good for the tummie.

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Tornado Destroys Member's Business - Quilts Survive

UPDATED:

Our misuderstanding that Bonnie owned a quilt shop - she and her husband owned a marine shop and they lost everything. The story is riveting. Do read it.

TQS Member, Bonnie Caldwell (Bonnie23), and her husband lost their marine business in a tornado on Mother's Day. To read the account in her own words, visit STORIES.

Bonnie, the entire TQS family is sending good thoughts and prayers your way.

Submit comments for Bonnie above - email her on her profile page.

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Quilts Surviving a Tornado!

Story Submitted by: Bonnie23

I learned this Mother's Day the strength of bond in a quilt. I live in south Georgia and my Mother's Day began by going to our favorite family restaurant for breakfast. Earlier than normal as there was threat of severe thunderstorms in our area by mid morning. Back at home we were monitoring the weather from our local (60 mi. away) tv station. Our meteorologist was bringing constant live updates and had spotted a supercell capable of a tornado about 12 mi west of our shop and it is about 3 mi. west of our home. Within minutes the clouds grew darker and darker and the rain began to pour. BAM, our cable and internet goes off the air. We immediately knew there was trouble! The equipment for cable and internet for our county was housed in the Industrial Park 650 feet from our shop. We own a Marine Sales and Service business. Minutes after and the cable still off the air, my husband got a call from a friend that lives near our business. "Come to your shop, a tornado just blew it away!" He rushed out not knowing what to expect and preparing for the worst. Or so he thought! He certainly was not prepared! I stayed behind to wait for the weather to settle off, because we have 4 dogs that live with us and are terrified of thunder and lightning! I shouldn't leave them, but I couldn't stay. I grabbed a jacket and started out with my husband on the phone saying "Please understand, there is nothing left of our building and boats are everywhere! Preparing for the worst, or so I thought! I certainly was not! Still raining and lightning popping in the area, I stared in utter disbelief! Where our shop stood on Saturday, a sparkling, clean concrete slab was left! As far as you could see there was devastation! A building between our shop the the cable substation was a rehabilitation center and had 20 to 30 people inside. Their building destroyed, but still there. With no warning of the coming storm, they had gathered in the center of the building for a church service. All of their lives were spared with a couple of broken arms and minor cuts and scrapes. I began to pace. Walking though engines with most missing parts nowhere to be found, boats cracked and turned upside down, and with the exception of a very few tools most things from our building reduced to unrecognizable rubble! Beams that required bucket and boom trucks to raise into place were bent double and tossed hundreds of feet into an open field. Power lines twisted hundreds if not a thousand times. Two of my quilts were in my office inside the building as well as some bolts of fabric. Still in shock and walking the path of the storm searching for anything to salvage. Picking up tools, fabrics that was unwound from the bolts and some still all wrapped up. I saw what appeared to be another boat off in the distance across a dirt road in the newly created trail from the storm. The National Weather Service later measured this boat to be over 2000 yards from our shop. I made my way to the area to see if I could recognize anything there. As I scanned the area, I saw what appeared to be another bolt of fabric. Still raining I bogged though ankle deep water and discovered it was one of my quilts! Wrapped around the tree and twisted in briers, but I gently pulled it to safety! The queen size quilt, soaking wet and looked like it had been dragged through a mud pit was in one piece! Quilt in arms and against my white T Shirt and a black jacket, blue jeans with water dripping out of them and water sloshing out of my shoes. I headed straight for my truck. Between shock and adrenaline, I carried that quilt nearly 1 mile without breaking stride - straight to the bed of our truck. As friends arrived and joined the salvage effort, the other quilt was found under some debris in the same state as the other. Near the second quilt was more bolts of fabric. I called a friend to pick up the quilts to be rinsed before the hot sun set the dirt and grime in permanently. I haven't gotten them back yet, but they survived with a few small tears and a couple of stains that may not come out. I washed some of the fabric last night and am washing more as I write tonight (or morning). It is truly amazing to me that the fury of this storm ripped apart over 8000 pound boats, yet I still have my quilts and hopefully can salvage enough fabric to make a "Tornado Quilt". I suppose the same strong bond that binds quilters, shares the same magic in their quilts!

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Series 1 DVDs

We currently have season one DVD's in the warehouse. Here is what you need to know:

1. If you pre purchased last year - your DVD has been shipped, you will get it any day now.

2. We are in the middle of testing the ordering process to make sure that everyone receives the correct discount (this has been a challenging process).

Light a candle and send good wishes - we hope to have the DVDs available very soon. We will blast it from the rooftops when they are good to go!

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Fiber 2008 Exhibit in Cleveland

Cleveland, Ohio, USA May 16 -June 1, 2008 The Cleveland Museum of Art in conjunction with the Textile Art Alliance of Cleveland presents this bi-annual juried show of contemporary fiber art. The exhibit is on display at the Cleveland State University Art Gallery. For more information about this exhibit click here.

Polaris, shown above, was created by Si-Yun Chang. It is hand stitched and embroidered over the surface, which is woven with mulberry paper. 41x35 in.

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