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!

Festival of Quilts at Birmingham, once again

Last week I have been to and on Monday returned from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. 

I am beginning to lose track of how many times I have been to that event and venue, and the whole procedure is getting to be a bit of a routine. I know my way from the airport to the hotel and the exhibition halls, I love the fact that the venue is so conveniently located to the airport. I enjoy being able to walk to the hotel with my bags (praise to the person who invented the wheel, and to the person who put suitcases on wheels!) from the airport, and back. 

It has become an important place to renew contact with many people whom I don’t get to see often, 

The SAQA dinner always is one of the highlights of the event.

and I use the setup to find topics/people to write about for the German Guild’s Magazine. With floor plan in hand and very little of a pre-set mind I make sure to see every single gallery with special exhibitions unless I have seen it before. At FoQ this year, ‘Stuff for Thought’, e.g. was one gallery that I did not look at in detail anymore because I had had three other opportunities where I could see it.

Some galleries I don’t spend a lot of time in, but the ones that touch me I can while away a lot of time in. 

I make sure to see every ‘winner’ in the winner’s gallery, 

Philippa Naylor, Circuit Training, 1st prize winner of Miniature Quilts

Philippa Naylor, Circuit Training, 1st prize winner of Miniature Quilts, detail

and I do go through the aisles of competition entries, pausing to look closer at those the somehow catch my eye.

A very interesting interpretation of the famous Japanese wood cut of a huge
wave (is it a tsunami?) - in plastic -

Anthropogenic Wave - Kay McKiernan, Detail

And I use the time to perhaps conduct an interview with an interesting exhibitor so I can then write an article for the magazine. 

 

Ruth Singer, 'Traces'

Ruth Singer with a quilt in her exhibition "Criminal Quilts"

One of the photos of prisoner women on their release from
prison that inspired Ruth Singer's exhibition

At FoQ, the one gallery that impressed me most was one the setup and preparation of which I had been following on Instagram, ‘The Button Box’. I was really impressed with the theme of the history of appreciation of textiles and needle work in recent centuries, and very touched by the quotes from literary works in which remarks about the importance and significance of textiles accompanied the works on the wall. It reminded me of a quote from a German turn of the 19^th century novel by Gabriele Reuter, ‘From a Good Family’, which describes a young girl’s development from expectant girl from a good family to an old spinster, who will never be married and is completely disillusioned in the end. At some point towards the end of the novel she is sitting next to her ailing mother whom she is taking care of at that time, stitching some doily, and questions herself ‘how many superfluous doilies have I stitched in my life, by the way?’ I remember how deeply I was shocked when I first read that sentence. And that sentiment somehow was represented in that wonderful exhibition in Birmingham.

 

'Up in a Minute', Christine Chester

 

'Up in a Minute', Christine Chester, detail

So Birmingham is an important and interesting date for me, but very tiring. This year the Hilton did not have reliable wi-fi for the entire time of my stay, which is highly annoying. The quality of food has never been up to the price you have to pay for it, but that’s the price to have to pay for the other conveniences of being put up there. If I had to pay for my own hotel stay, I would certainly choose a different accomodation.

It’s good to be on vacation now with the family.