Meeting size restrictions

I am the co-rep for SAQA’s region Europe/Middle East, and moderator for the regional blog. The establishment of such a blog had been strongly suggested by the board, and after some hesitation at first I finally caved in and agreed to do it. The SAQA Europe/Middle East blog has been online since the end of October 2012. Ever since then, it’s been leading a rather dull and uneventful life, as contributions by members have been scarce and far between, and I had said from the very beginning that I would only be doing this in a function as moderator, not usually generating posts. A brief lively period occurred last September/October, when we had a give-away of SAQA’s second collection of Aurifil threads, which had been donated by Alex Veronelli of Aurifil. During that brief period, I came across and (with Lisa Walton’s permission) copied the idea of publishing posts about the making of SAQA members’ contributions to the annual SAQA Benefit auction. In the newsletters, we have repeatedly asked our members to take a few documentary photos, write up a few lines about the inspiration and the process, and submit it for publication on the blog.

It’s still early in the year, and I am hopeful that there will be more contributions than the one from the Netherlands that I have been promised.

In order to fulfill my own duties in this project, I decided soon after Christmas that I would get an early start, finish my contribution, and get the documentation done.

As I have been working with reflector fabric, and trying to include text in some of my recent work, I wanted to make a small quilt that featured both. I came up with the idea that that bore potential for a contemporary interpretation of the Nine-Patch, and set to work.

The text is a contribution to the discussion of art and meaning, and spread out over the Nine-Patches that make up the Double Nine-Patch.

Lettering on the back of reflector fabric, in mirror image

Everything went fine until I had it all finished – and measured the sides. It was one inch larger than the 12” requirement. 

Checking back with the organizers of the auction, I was told that they had accepted 13” squares before, but that the two from last year had not sold. Now, I did not want that to happen with mine, so decided this would have to find a different solution.

Yes, obviously I do have a size problem, it happens to me all the time. Not to worry, though – except for the fact that I won’t be able to use this as my blog post for the “Grand Gallery”, and I will have to come up with another idea for that purpose and the auction, this little one will find its way into my exhibition at the Fagus Werk in Alfeld in October. For this I am making five pieces size 40 by 40 cm (16” square). Accordingly, I have mounted this little one on additional darker blue background fabric and am now waiting for the wooden frames on which it will be displayed. And I made sure that there is enough blue fabric around the original part so that the finished piece will actually fit over the wooden slabs! Don't want to run into yet another size problem, at least not with this piece.

One item on the list crossed off. But another still open.