Abstract & Geometric in Heidelberg (Diary of Recovery no.5)

Last week I spent quite a lot of hours on trains. Due to uncoordinated planning a family issue took me to Würzburg and back on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I had planned a trip to finally see the SAQA exhibition "Abstract & Geometric" at the textile museum in Heidelberg.

I have a piece in there, but could not go to the opening in March. Then, before I could make plans, the virus hit, travel was not permitted, and then the museum closed. Now I was happy to find out that it reopened, and the exhibition is extended, too. So if you get a chance to go to Heidelberg before July 12, make sure you go on a Wednesday or on the weekend, because the museum is not open every day.
Agreed, it was a lot of hours on the train, with mask, to see this exhibition, going back and forth in one day, but it was definitely worth the trip.

In the middle of the room: one SAQA box

The museum is an old parsonage and has a special feel to the exhibitions room.

And it felt good to see my quilt "Play of Lines VIII" hanging next to big names in the quilting world, including many favorites of mine.

I don't want to single out one particular artist in the show - you have to go see it. But I do want to give an idea of the impact of Else van Barle's piece "Letters from a friend" that can be seen from the back in the picture above, and in a detail shot right here:

But all the other pieces in the show are just as impressive. The catalogue is available via the SAQA store, or you can pick up a copy in Heidelberg! Or at one of the following venues.

That day, all the trains were on time, and I arrived home early enough to catch a good night's sleep. And today our open air pool opened up! Lots of restrictions, and only a certain number of people allowed in the pool, swimming in lanes, not passing each other, and Germans' understanding of freedom is that they can swim in the pool in whatever manner they like, why should they stay in lanes, or heaven forbid, abide by a regulation as to how fast you should be able to swim in this particular lane... But getting to go to swim is better than not at all. So I feel much better now after I have come back from the first visit. And perhaps there will be some rainy days when the others don't want to go to the pool, then it will be my time.

Quilt Triennale 2012

Last Saturday I sent off my entry documents for the “Quilt Triennale”, a tri-annual competition initiated by the "Textilsammlung Max Berk" in Heidelberg. The letter had to be postmarked by the next day at the latest, so it was a tight fit, as so often with me and participation in competitions.

I had only decided at the beginning of the week before that I would actually enter a piece as I had been planning for most of the last year. When I had sat down with my husband  in early January to figure out our schedules, and was so hit with all that I was planning to do, I had sort of scrapped any entries to competitions such as European Art Quilts or others immediately. Couldn’t miss out on any running meter of quilt for my solo at Ste. Marie!

But then I finished a large quilt in the second half of January, measuring 1,80 on every side, that I had been working on for quite a while, sometimes even struggling hard. At first I was only happy to have it off my hands, then I finally decided that it was worth to try and enter this one.

If it gets taken, I have 2,30 m more to fill by September (that’s the measurement of the quilt plus the distance between quilts as set by the organizers.) If it doesn’t make it, I will still be able to show it in Ste. Marie. We’ll see what happens.