Opportunities

 

It seems as if the moment of my recent exhibition in Denmark was a bit of a push-factor in my so long lingering quilting mojo. First, of course, it was a very good feeling to see several of my quilts together “out in the open”, which hadn’t happened in almost three years. And second, somehow things are moving now.

I have several ideas for quilts that I want to enter in challenges, or that I need to make for the group challenge for “Voyage”. (I even had an idea for 20 Perspectives’ challenge Flowers, but am not following up on that as I am currently taking a sabbatical from the group challenges there.

 

This is not my idea, and I am not making a flower quilt, 
but it is a nice shot of my mother's sunflower heads 
that she is now saving for the birds to put out for them during winter.

)

Another interesting thing has happened as well. In August I met a friend from the town where we used to live until the fall of 2024, who has since changed position and is now the museum director in Dingolfing, Bavaria. This is a fairly rich town as a large car manufacturing company is located there, accordingly, the museum is not only scraping by. He told me about an upcoming outside exhibition next year by a group of descendants of former refugees, Germans who had been living in what is now Czech Republic and were displaced after the end of WWII, as happened to many Germans at that time. They had brought their every-day and celebratory costumes with them, although they soon stopped wearing them during every-day activities when they realized that this was not usual in the places where they had ended up. The group of approx.. 3,000 people dispersed around the world, but some pockets of them remained together, albeit at various places in Germany. They have since founded an archive where they preserve the traditional costumes, they have documented their form of German dialect as it was spoken, and they have participated in parades such as the traditional parade of ethnic and regional groups during Oktoberfest in Munich. Since the end of communist rule in Czechia contacts have been established between descendants of the former refugees and the people who are now living in the area from where they were displaced. And they have staged exhibitions to inform about their traditions and culture in various places. Dingolfing will be the next one.

My friend the director wanted to broaden their concept of exhibition, has invited a video artist, who is working on the topic of displacement and home – and while we were talking about this event, he bore the idea of including some of my quilts in it as well. Did I have more quilts on that topic than the one he owns? Would I be interested…? Things have been developing from there. Would I be interested in making a quilt out of fabrics from their collection?

Dr. Matthias Witzleb amongst a group of "Wischauer" women 
when their costumes and language compilation were named immaterial heritage last year.

 

Meanwhile, I have talked to one woman from the group, who herself was born in Czechia and was displaced with her family at age four. She will send me some of their history pieces and I will see how inspiration will strike me then, whether it will lead me onwards from the idea I have already brewing in my mind. I am thinking of a piece for the text messages series.

And just yesterday a new exhibition opportunity was developed between the local minister and me in northern Bavaria for late October next year. Things are moving!

Carrefour le 31ème...

 

Last week was completely dominated by the annual visit to Ste. Marie-aux-Mines for the European Patchwork Meeting/Carrefour. As it is now the location for premiering EQA's small size quilt challenges, and the location where EQA holds the AGM, the visit has become virtually unavoidable - in a good sense. It is familiar, I know the place, and it feels like almost coming home.
 

It was very depressing to see the empty fountains 
throughout the valley, though, and to learn that 
they had had a water crisis during the heat wave 
of the summer, with drinking water being transported in 
in lorries. Climate change for real experience.

 This year I gave myself permission to have a little fun beforehand, I revisited the Butterfly Garden in nearby Hunawihr on the day of my arrival. I had been there before,  seberal years ago, and as I had just read a book about butterflies I thought it was time to go back. I remembered some things slightly differently,  but it was still very nice to be in the midst of these fascinating creatures. 

 

 

On Wednesday I prepared the German contributions for hanging. And started counting various species of insects as depicted in the quilts. The idea for counting different species had occurred to me when out of the 45 German contributions we had two with a Praying Mantis. The total of those was 11. There were over 70 quilts with butterflies. 18 quilts with ants. 37 with Ladybirds/Ladybugs, 39 with grasshoppers. We didn't count the bugs overall, although I did notice there were many, perhaps that is a homework to be given to the Belgian guild which will be exhibiting the entire collection at their Quilting Event in October. I did notice - because I made one - that there were three Picasso bugs, however, a personal bias is always fascinated by similar things! 

 

The complete collection of Insects can be seen once again in 
Belgium October 7-11, details can be found 
@eqa_europeanquiltassociation on Instagram, or on 
https://www.belgiumquilt.be/nl/.

 
Then I proceeded to help hanging Barbara Lange 's exhibition with the wonderful title 'Embarrassing Mothers ', for which Barbara keeps finding new and interesting names, AND turns them into absolutely adorable quilts with a multitude of ideas. No way telling which are my favorites!

In the process of hanging... Barbara Lange and Gabi Fischer.

 
The German Patchwork Gilde 's Tradion bis Moderne was exhibited in Église Madeleine in the center of town, and I was happy when somebody showed me that my quilt had been used as the photo for the exhibition in the catalog. 

 
Four days of intensive work traveling to ALL of the exhibitions in the 17 different locations followed. I was especially happy to see Brenda Gael Smith's Forza Vitale  in Ste. Croix-aux-Mines, but was equally impressed with most of the other exhibitions as well.  
And again, very moved by the many ideas quilters come up with when using Guldusi embroideries for different topics. I had recently arrived at a state where I didn't have 'loose end' Guldusi embroideries hangout in my boxes because I had managed to use several in the 'Conversing with Earth' series for 20 Perspectives and in 'Seeing Red'. That status has now changed and been reversed. The challenge continues.

 

I won't go into detail about the other exhibitions, each of which had their own impressive characteristics. I can't do all of them justice here and suggest you check out @carrefour_patchwork on instagram for a complete overview. 

 
Needless to mention that it was fun to meet friends more or less unexpectedly, to have wonderful chance encounters with people whom I 'knew' but hadn't met in person yet, and just to be out and about in nice sunshine, and to eat a sufficient amount of Tartes flambées to tie me over for the year.

 

Allison James and Ildiko Polyak, two of the five 
(ex)members of 20 Perspectives that I happened 
to run into.We could have arranged a European Members Meeting... 

Looking forward to going back. And I am thinking about perhaps entering the contest next year. A vague idea is building.

Ste. Marie-aux-Mines at 30

 

In the middle of September I spent a few days at the Carrefour Européen Patchwork (former “EPM” from European Patchwork Meeting) in Val d’Argent, southeast of Strasbourg. I can’t recall exactly how many times I had been there before, nevertheless it was a ‘first’ for me this time: now that is the place where EQA-meetings take place and the EQA challenge premieres (which used to be in Birmingham at FoQ). The other EQA representatives had already made their first appearance there last year, but I had not been able to go.

It had been difficult for me to arrange for a few days off from work for the festival when talking to the superior in spring. When I had the confirmation that I would be able to go I booked train tickets right away, counting on those days as the maximum, because, well, I had been told I could not be spared at work and really I should be grateful that I was to go at all... That made for a rather tight schedule in terms of how much time I would have to see the exhibitions, which is always a part of my duty as a writer for the German Guild’s magazine – and when the ork wschedule for September was published, I was rather surprised that I had one additional day off before and after what I had asked for. But the tickets couldn’t be changed anymore, and it took me a while to get over being a bit pissed off about that. Had I known, I would of course have booked differently and given me a bit more time and leisure to look in detail, make time to meet and chat with more friends. As it was, I felt a bit rushed all the days I was there.

It also took me a bit of time to get used to the – for me – new situation with accomodation as well, not in the valley, as I had been used to when going there with friends from Patchwork Gilde, but in Sélestat, depending on the shuttle. In the end I adapted and although I may travel differently next year – car? Bring a bike? Stay on the campground? – I had a wonderful few days even though they were packed.

It won’t be possible to give justice to all the wonderful exhibitions on display at this anniversary edition, and I won’t even try. But I loved meeting the Australians.

Short chat with Lorena Uriarte, whose works I have been admiring for a long time.

And a chat with Tara Glastonbury, I love her bold colors and modern designs.

So much fun to re-meet with Helen Beaven from New Zealand, 
I had first met her in Wellington 10 years ago. 

 

Seeing SAQA’s “Color in Context: Blue”. 

A quilt about a child with autism and special needs. 

 

And being involved in EQA’s display of the annual challenge with this year’s topic of “Contrast”. Already hanging it was fun, but stewarding the show was even more satisfying because you could take time to look at the over 400 pieces in more detail. I kept discovering new elements of interest. 

 

We had the annual AGM for EQA and I am now the treasurer for EQA.

Secretary Mary Hunter from Ireland, chair Marleen Verhuisen from Belgium, and me

 

And we decided on the next topic for the 2026 EQA challenge, which gave me a host of ideas as to possibilities for contributing a quilt this time as well, besides doing all the organizational work that comes with my position of International Representative. I didn’t keep track, but I must have come up with at least ten different ideas while we were having our Saturday-evening dinner. However, each participant is allowed only one entry, I will have to make up my mind. And find the time for making it to begin with…

Spiders are not considered part of the group of insects,
but when a spider is wrapping up another insect, that would 
qualify as inspiration, don't you think?

 

 I loved Ulla Hoppe's exhibition of her embroideries, and especially her self-portrait:

 And I finally remembered to take some selfies with friends, but they are not my forte, alas.

 

 Looking forward to coming back next year, hopefully with a little bit more time at my hands.

 

Taking a risk, and it was worth it - so far.

When I decided to enter two quilts into Wide Horizons which had its call open in March I was arguing to myself that it was giving the quilts a doubled chance of being accepted. One, “Seeing Red”, was also registered for the competion in Brno (Cz), and the jurying was scheduled to be done before the exhibition opened in Brno. Nor is there a statement that prohibits quilts from being entered in Wide Horizons which have been shown before. The second quilt I entered was the intended entry for EPMs contest “Ocean”.

My busy life being what it has been in the past few months, however, led to the fact that the Ocean-candidate could still use a bit more adding on when the deadline for Wide Horizons rolled in. I took my own photo – which I usually don’t do, I always take my quilts to be professionally photographed – and figured we would be notified in time that I could add a bit of stitching for an entry in Ocean should it not be chosen for Wide Horizons. Because there is a statement in the rules that the quilt must not be altered after a picture has been entered for competition.

Earlier this week, however, we still had not heard from Wide Horizons, and today was the final day for entering for Ocean. And I did want to get a professional photograph this time… I could have managed that, as I am a regular customer with the photographer, I think I would have been able to talk him into processing the photo so quickly that I could have had the picture taken yesterday and receive the fully edited file today. But no notice, and I found out that we would only be notified today. Too late to wait for confirmation about which, if any, of my two entries would be accepted… So I decided to take the risk, as I really wanted the Ocean-candidate to get a bit more stitching. 

 

I added some more quilting, a few more embellishments, and figured it was worth the risk to maybe have to pull back should it be chosen, or just ask whether I could send in the final version, even if it did not match with the picture entirely. Stitching took place yesterday, but that definitely did not leave enough time for having it photographed professionally. I took photos this morning, hoping that they turned out ‘ok enough’ so it would not be dismissed for reason of insufficient photography.

Got in my entry with EPMbefore midday – couldn’t wait around all day, because there were so many things that needed to be done I just did not want to put it off. And well I did, because it took quite some time to get the application finished, they made me fill in all the relevant information several times. (I am not too plussed with their website: the German translation is rather faulty, I did not check the English version, but finally returned to doing it all in French because I figured I would understand well enough.)

In the afternoon the message arrived… and I was happy to read that Seeing Red had been accepted. 

 

Detail photos of "Seeing Red"

I had hoped that this one would be the one chosen, but you never know. No need to withdraw the Ocean entry. But again there I entered with a non-professional photo…

In any case, “Seeing Red” has been chosen for Wide Horizons and will be shown at EPM in September. I need to wait a few weeks to find out whether a second large quilt of mine will be shown. But definitely a small one will be as well, as I have started on the binding of my bird quilt for the EQA challenge.

More life is happening right now and I am on the train to visit my father in hospital, I fear there may not be as much time for creativity within the next few days as I had hoped to have in my two weeks off work. I brought some knitting, though, to calm my nerves, and am allowing me to cast on a new piece. In yellow.

 

It is an idiosyncratic combination of a knitting pattern I saw and Sarah C Swett's method of  increasing at the beginning of a row. I love what I am seeing and getting - but right now it is a complete pain in the neck to be knitting the pattern because I only brought knitting needles with a rather roundish tip and it is proving rather difficult to get into a swing or flow with the knitting. I am steadfastly resisting the consumerist urge that says 'go get new neeldes!' because I do have well-pointed ones at home and don't quite know why I did not bring those. But they are there and I will wait until I get back home. Until then I can just knit a bit more slowly and meditatively, I do not need to buy any knitting needles.

8, (7,6,5,4) 3…

 

The countdown is on. When I handed in my resignation at the end of August I knew the remaining four months at the practice would seem longish, but I also thought that two periods of vacation and the overall arrangement of working 3 days a week, usually all in a row following each other, would make it relatively feasible. The feisty brat, too, has held back in her unpleasant behavior. Not talking at all except for an occasional ‘hi’ is much preferrable to her usual bitchy tone of voice. Which even – albeit very briefly  ­ let me wonder whether it would have been possible to stay there if she had been behaving like that all the time. But thinking about that is nuisance, as there are indeed several other issues that contributed to the decision to move on. And the new arrangement just seems so much more pleasant now, with the lake looming as a daily possibility. 

 

The only thing is the fact that I am planning to commute by train, and given the current situation of the German Railway system, that may be a training in resilience. We will see.

Had a creative brainstorm meeting with my good friend Barbara on Wednesday last week, we met in Landshut in a café. Barbara gave me one of her quilts that is going to Abilmente with me in February, and we had a wonderful time talking about options, ideas, textile projects. When I returned home I immediately laid out the dimensions needed for the upcoming challenge for Ste. Marie-aux-Mines, and positioned a couple of pieces I had already made in other contexts but want to include in this piece. For example, my one and only piece for this year’s German Guild’s Sew Along “Meer Gilde” (Ocean Guild) will become a part of this piece. 

My island in the Sun....

 

Then Thursday was day 8 before goodbye from the practice, I had been feeling unwell all day but had gone to work nevertheless. When I came home after the early shift I returned my lunch to the sewer and took myself to bed. Friday a trip to the doctor gave me a 6 day-sick call, which cut down the remaining 7 days of work to three. The doctor suggested a corona test, which was negative, as was the second one a couple of days later, but so far I have been taking a very long time in getting better. I was able to do a little bit of stitching on Sunday, in deed working on the new piece for the Ste. Marie-aux-Mines competition with the challenge topic ‘ocean’. It gives me the opportunity to try to put into fabric an idea I have been hovering for a few months now.

Rather more pictorial than I usually work, but why not try something new?

 

But it’s been a roller coaster since, I haven’t been able to do much at all and am simply hanging out in bed, using a lot of tissues  and coughing. I don’t think I have felt as miserable as this since the corona infection in July 2022, but as the tests say negative, and the cough feels very different from the one back then, I hope that it really is just one of the other viral cough infections and this pandemic unpleasantry will pass me by. The remaining three days of work are up after Christmas, I hope to be able to recuperate until then. After all, solstice is over, starting today the days will be getting longer, that must have an influence on my physical well being!