Saturday, July 19, 2014

Summer Shows

The summer is midway through, and I haven't really gotten any weaving done.  My son and I have been building a table, and I have been doing some knitting in preparation for the Fall Fiber Festival at Montpelier in October.  I just find that having my house in a chaotic mess makes it hard to weave, but maybe I am just looking for an excuse.  However, this week, the floors are being laid, and the installer has almost half the floor done in my studio.  I am hoping to have my loom and all my supplies back in the studio by Wed. of next week.  I will need to do some touchup on the paint, but I am looking forward to having my studio back in order.

In the meantime, Joan Griffin sent a snapshot of our group's tapestries from Untitled/Unjuried at Convergence.  However, we did title our group's theme which was Virginia Blues.




I finally was able to go to a Tapestry Alliance show.  We were on vacation in San Diego and I was able to attend a show for the first time.  It was a beautiful show.  I was not able to take photographs, although I did sneak one of Joan's tapestry to show her the installation.  It looked beautiful.  Rebeccca Mezoff has several of the photos on her blog you can look at.  I really enjoyed the show and the kids enjoyed the ability to go through and pick their favorite tapestry and vote for it.


Visions Art Museum is a lovely little quilt and textile arts museum in an old military base that has been refurbished.  Despite our many trips to San Diego to see my inlaws, we have never gone down to this part of town near the airport.  The buildings are filled with art studios and restaurants.  We had some very good Japanese food there, and then went to the museum.  The staff were very nice and fun to talk with.  

Just a plea, one of the women there told me there is a debate about whether or not to host another ATB at the museum because despite the fact that Visions says it is a quilt AND textile museum, most of their members are quilters.  There is a debate about whether the tapestries are too different from quilts and whether it has been good for the mission of the museum to host the show.  The woman I spoke with says she has very much enjoyed seeing the tapestries and that it has brought many new people to the museum.  I want to encourage all of you to write to the museum to encourage them to host ATB again.  To make it easy, here is the email address of the executive director Beth Smith, beth@visionsartmuseum.org   I know that the Dairy Barn is also hosting the show and they are also primarily a quilting venue.  Please let Visions know we appreciate their venue and would love to see ATB there again.  If you are in the Southern California region please visit!