Voices in Cloth and Stitch Modern. Two Great Quilt Groups and Two Great Quilt Shows!

I'll just say it - if you're a quilter, the San Francisco Bay Area is the place to be.  This area is blessed with great museums, great fabric stores and an even greater quilting and sewing community.  Just in the next month, there are two great quilt shows!  This weekend, March 19 & 20, the East Bay Heritage Quilt Guild will be hosting their bi-annual quilt show at the beautiful Craneway Pavilion.  Every member has a chance to show a quilt of their choice and the range of different types of quilting is really fun to see.  There will also be a special exhibit of Julie Silber's "Maverick Quilts," which I'm super excited to check out.

I will be doing a free demo on Sunday from 12-1.  my topic is "Improvising with Structure," and I've been having so much coming up with samples!  You can find out more about the my demo as well as what else will be on offer here.  Entry to the show is $15, but the demos are all free with admittance!

Some samples for the Improvising with Structure demonstration

The second show I want to tell you about is Stitch Modern, which runs from April 8 - May 8 at the Piedmont Center for the Arts.  This show is very special to me because it's the 5th year that my group, the East Bay Modern Quilters, has put on this month long exhibit!  Amazing!  And, every year it gets better.  Many of the events hosted over the course of the month are free, or at a very low cost and open to all ages.  This is an event that we put on to promote our love of the art and we want to share it with as many people as possible!  Check out what we have going on, or sign up for the East Bay Modern Quilters newsletter to keep abreast of late-breaking news.

I have work in both shows, so go check them out!

Time for Stitch Modern!

It's almost here!  Stitch Modern 2015 will open on March 27th and run until April 25th at the Piedmont Center for the Arts.  If you live in the SF Bay Area, the show is not to be missed!  The opening, which is on March 27 from 6pm-9pm, is always a great party. If you don't live nearby, follow along on the Stitch Modern blog, or by following #stitchmodern.  Find out more about the show and all the events below.

 

The East Bay Modern Quilters are proud to present Stitch Modern 2015, our 4th annual quilt show at the Piedmont Center for the Arts. As a group, East Bay Modern focuses on modern design and personal expression through quilting. As a non-juried show, there are no hard rules - this is quilting our own way, whether it’s with the latest fabrics and traditional patterns, or free piecing with no pattern at all!

We hope you will join us! Click the links below to find out more about our exciting events.

March 27th - April 25th
Piedmont Center of the Arts
801 Magnolia Ave, Piedmont, CA.
Gallery Hours: 12pm-3pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. (The gallery will be closed on Easter, April 5th.)

March 27th: 6pm-9pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts FREE
Opening Reception - Join the artists for an evening of fun, food, and celebration. There will be a book signing with Sherri Lynn Wood presenting her new book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters. Signed books by Roderick Kiracofe and Eli Leon will also be available.


April 12th: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts FREE
Stitch Up - An afternoon of sewing in memory of Deanna Davis Come and celebrate the life and passion of our friend, Deanna, by helping to make quilts for her favorite charity, The Children's Quilt Project. Fabric kits will be provided, just bring your sewing machine or bring your own fabric donation. People new to sewing are welcome!


April 16th: 7pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts
Lecture: Biased and Edgy: My Career in Quilts, a lecture by Joe Cunningham $10 collected at the door, doors open at 6:30pm

April 18th: 10am-4pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts
Workshop: Modern quilts with a message: Designing quilt blocks for today’s stories with Kathryn Clark. $85 (registration required)

April 19th: 12pm-2:30pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts FREE
Family and Community Activity Day - includes quilting demos

Quilts clockwise from top left: Tara Faughnan, Joel Ignacio, Linda Hlady, Stacey Sharman, Terri Carpenter, Patricia Smith, Kristen Takakuwa

Stitch Modern 2014 Is Here!

This is the 3rd year that my guild, the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild, will be holding their annual show at the Piedmont Center for the Arts.  It's a lot of fun and we have a great time showing off our latest works.  I just got back from hanging the show, and as it does every year, it looks amazing!  If you live in the Bay Area, make sure you come and check it out. All our events are open to the public and many are free of charge, unless otherwise noted. You can find out more below, or on our website.

Stitch Modern 2014
January 31 – Feb 23rd at
Piedmont Center of the Arts
801 Magnolia Ave, Piedmont, CA.
Gallery Hours: 12pm-3pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Jan 31st: 6pm-9pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts
Opening Reception

Feb 8: 12:30pm – 1pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts
Needle Ceremony- An informal memorial service for our spent sewing needles and pins based on the Japanese Hari kuyou ceremony which happens on February 8th. Bring your spent machine, hand sewing, and pins and join us in celebrating our tools and their service.

Feb 8: 1pm – 2:30pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts
Panel Discussion, Beyond the Bed: Exploring Quilts in the Public Eye – Please join us for a moderated discussion highlighting how quilts have gone from being household objects to objet d’art.

Feb 9: 12:00pm-2:30pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts
Family and Community Activity Day – includes quilting demos

Feb 13: 7pm-8:30pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts $5
Lecture: Ben Venom & Roderick Kiracofe

Feb 16: 12pm-3pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts
Sew Day with the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild

Feb 23: 9:30am-4pm, Piedmont Center of the Arts $75
Workshop: Round Robin Improv with Sherri Lynn Wood. SOLD OUT!

Want a sneak peak at the my quilt? Here it is right after we finished hanging the show with my happy little helper.  (Mine is the double wedding ring.)

Stitch Modern!

I've been having so much fun organizing all of the events for Stitch Modern that I forgot to drop in here and tell you about them! 

We had our Opening Reception last Saturday at the beautiful Piedmont Center for the Arts and I had a great time!  There were people who drove up all the way from Santa Cruz and ladies who left a quilt retreat in Napa, just to drive down and attend the show - not to mention all of the families, friends, and members of the community who came by!

Stitch Modern opening reception

That's me on the left and a quilt by the amazing Dan Rouse in the background

The food was amazing, visiting with friends was really fun, and I won't even tell you how many bottles of wine were emptied!

Here's my quilt, Happiness

 Okay, the opening was exciting, but the best parts of the show are still to come!  We have a bunch of different events planned that will take place while the show is up.  If you live in the SF Bay Area - COME!

Feb 5 (TONIGHT!): Lecture: Modern Improv Quilting and Process by Sherri Lynn Wood 7-8:30, Piedmont Center for the Arts, $5 entry fee. There will be door prizes!

 Feb 9: Textile Design Panel Discussion and Q&A, featuring Ellen Heck, Pati Fried, Sandy Klop, Jennifer Moore, Carol Van Zandt and moderated by Kim Andersson 12:30-1:30, Piedmont Center for the Arts

 Feb 10: Family Activity Day including quilting and design demos 12:00-2:30, Piedmont Center for the Arts

 Feb 13: Lecture: Threads of Transition, Patterns of Change: Rabari Appliquéd Textiles of India a lecture by Kristine Vejar 7-8:30, **To be held at A Verb for Keeping Warm**

 Feb 16: Sew SaturDay with East Bay Modern Quilt Guild 12-3, Piedmont Center for the Arts

If you can't make it out to see the show in person, you can see some pictures on the Stitch Modern Flickr group.

Getting Ready for Stitch Modern

I hang out with this great group of people who call themselves the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild.  Last year, we decided to have a little show where we could hang up our quilts and show our friends and family just how cool we are. We called the show, Stitch Modern.

Stitch Modern 2012

Everyone had lots of fun, so, we've decided to do it again!  Of course, even though we have had the past year to prepare, we all function much better under pressure, so we're still putting the finishing touches on the schedule...and on our quilts!  I just pulled mine off the longarm, so it still needs binding, and a proper photo shoot, but I'll give you a sneak peek.

The Stitch Modern opening will be on Saturday, February 2nd from 6 until 9.  If you live anywhere within driving distance, get there!  It's going to be a great time and the quilts are going to be amazing! (Don't believe me?  You can see pictures of some of the early entries on our Flickr page, as well as see all the fun we had last year.)

*Just a little post-script, because I don't want to make anyone jealous or anything, but congratulations to Margaret who won the Craft-A-Day book!  You'll be getting it soon, Margaret!!

Stitch Modern - The Opening Night Extravaganza!

What makes Stitch Modern a better quilt show than any you've ever been to before?  We served wine!  Oh, and all the awesome people who helped make this show possible and the amazing quilts they put in it!

Food as Craft (thanks to Kristen Takakuwa!)

For those in the SF Bay area, the show will be up until the end of February.  Catch it Wed, Friday, and Sunday from 12-3 at the Piedmont Center for the Arts.  I'll be there this coming Wednesday night (February 8, 6:oo pm) helping to lead a public conversation exploring the topic of Modern Quilting.  There will be door prizes!

For those not in the area, you can catch the photos on Flickr.  I'm working on making a full gallery tour available online, but that hasn't happened yet, so stay tuned!

Stitch Modern

Me and my quilting compadres have been busy this week.  We have been installing our first group quilt show, Stitch Modern!

I admit, I was quite intimidated by the daunting task of arranging, hanging and promoting a show, but thanks to some very talented and visionary people,* it came out splendidly!

Planning.

Hanging.

Perfect!

*Birgit, Kim, Sharona, and everyone who put up with long strings of rambling e-mails and helped hang the quilts late into the night - THANK YOU!!!  And, none of this would have happened if it hadn't been for Birgit!

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, the show will be hanging through the end of February (You heard it here first: The show has been extended!) at the Piedmont Center for the Arts.   As well as visiting during gallery hours, we've planned some fun events.  Hope to see you there!

• Feb 4: 6:30pm-8:30pm  Saturday Opening Reception
• Feb 8: 6pm  What is Modern Quilting? Public Conversation (I'll be on the panel!)
• Feb 12: 12:30pm-2:30pm  Family Event: Make Your Own Quilt Square Ages 4+

And here's a little sneak peak!