Quilts & Quilters (and related stories)
From Around the World
European Patchwork Meeting The Red Shoe Project Meet AustrAliA’s Jeanne Treleaven
Aurifil How it all Began Coming to Ireland National Quilt Week
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE Russian exhibit amazes viewers at the 2014 European Patchwork Meeting
Cover0Quilt 4
Song of Uraltau By Alfiya Nugumanova Russia, 2013 European Patchwork Meeting, 2014 2
IN THIS ISSUE
OCTOBER, 2014
6
Every Company Has a History
8
‘My Story’ Meet Australia’s Jeanne Treleaven
10
The Red Shoe Project Soles for the Soul
13 0
Quilts from the 2014 European Patchwork Meeting
Aurifil Thread – From the Beginning
3
By Nikki Foley There is a movement among Irish quilters to highlight and share their quilts and quilting traditions. Beginning in 2015, the quilters of Ireland will host an annual week-long event known as National Quilting Week (NQW). With the premiere event scheduled for June 1-7, 2015, this exceptional week is an opportunity for the quilters of Ireland to showcase their work and their inspirations with the rest of the quilting world. If you have ever wanted to travel to the Emerald Isle, this is a perfect time to visit as it will be an “Ireland Wide Event.” Coast to coast, exhibits will be plentiful and local quilt shops will be participating with quilt displays and special gatherings. Events are planned for every style of quilter, including classes in the host city of Killarney. As a visitor, you might even be able to secure a private quilting class at your hotel! Among other events, the Blasket Center, a National Heritage Site near Dingle, will be host to an exhibit of quilts and patchwork chairs, and the Quilter’s Quest in Belfast will be hosting a special exhibition of work from this area. In Limerick, a Quilt Barn Trail will be active for the entire week, as will a special walking tour of street art. There will be so many “quilty” activities in Ireland, it may take more than a week to experience them all! To commemorate the inaugural 2015 NQW, Nikki Foley, one of the event organizers and owner of the shop, The Sewing Shed, has designed and will be offering a limited edition kit based on the ancient work of the Celtic Illuminated Manuscripts. On the final evening of NQW, a very special and unique gathering is planned in Killarney. The International Gathering of the Guilds will bring quilters from around the world together for an evening of show and tell, chat and sharing. Information on NQW is available on their website – www.quiltireland.ie. For any inquiries, feel free to email Nikki Foley at info@quiltiereland.ie.
**The above information is provided for your interest. While Deb Roberts’ Tours/World of Quilts Travel will be having a tour to this event, they have no affiliation with the event organizers.
Welcome to
IQ
Through the online channels provided by the internet and social networking sites, it has become evident that the language of quilts and quilt making is known universally among enthusiasts throughout the world. On the pages of IQ News, I hope to share stories and features that will attract each generation of devotee by offering a glimpse into the lives, inspirations, and work of fellow quilters and fiber artists. For example, in this edition, fiber artist Sally Scott tells the story of her Red Shoe Workshops, a passion that has not only encouraged her, but has enabled and heartened women in her community.
PUBLISHER
IQ news will be a journey, it will change and evolve just as quilt making does. My goal is to share stories about quilts as well as the quilters from around the world who have crossed my path in one way or another, whether online or in person. Likewise, I hope to tell of my travels that allow me to encounter so many wonderful quilts and quilters, as well as the people I meet or read about along the way.
Deborah Roberts
As a result of the quilt related tours that I offer through World of Quilts Travel, I have had the unique opportunity to meet and visit with a wide range of quilters from various parts of the world. Time and time again, I have discovered that the passion for quilting is the same regardless of where people live. IQ News will never be sold, and it will be made available online in digital format. It will always be just a “click” away. I have a wonderful job traveling the world over to see quilts, and I am both blessed and lucky to be able to take others who share this passion with me. Thus, I have decided to convey the stories of quilts, quilters, and travels in this format as it allows me to share the world of quilts and quilters with you. I also have a keen interest in “how things happen.” For example, how did Aurifil Thread come about? The fabulous color pallets, the wonderful cotton fibers…human interest stories, like the one in this issue about Aurifil, appeal to anyone who loves thread or any quilting product. Do you have a story to tell? Please let me know! I would love to read about you and perhaps feature your story in one of the upcoming newsletters. With technology and telecommunications bringing the world together, IQ News presents an opportunity for the international quilt community to learn and hear from our distant “extended family.” As we move forward, my hope is that no matter where we live or work, as a group with this common bond, we will continue to learn from each other, support each other, and share our quilting culture in a way that will personify this unity to the world.
Quilt News
EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS Nikki Foley Jeanne Treleaven Sally Scott Alex Veronelli
I’d love to read your quilt story – about you, your quilting community, your guild show, and perhaps post it here. Please send it to the contact email below.
Contact: Deb.IQnews@gmail.com
Deb Roberts has been interested in quilts since childhood and passionate about travel for as long as she can recall. Her love for travel and work in the quilting industry as an appraiser, teacher, author, designer and researcher/historian for over three decades has led her to a perfect career - planning travel for quilters. She loves to share extraordinary opportunities with like-minded adventures and hopes to continue to do so through the pages of International Quilt (IQ) NEWS® “Learning about the quilt and textile traditions of other people and their culture excites me and I consider it a joy to share this heritage with others.”
FROM THE BEGINNING….
Aurifil Thread by Alex Veronelli Italy
has always been a world leader in the production of luxury textiles, from bed linens, table coverings,
bath robes, and towels, to garments and high fashion. Following the course of this rich textile tradition, Aurifil Thread came into existence with the goal of providing embellishment threads for the Italian textile trade. Looking back to 1957, a young man by the name of Angelo Gregotti founded Studio Auriga to produce designs for a multi-head mechanical embroidery machine to support the textile industry in the area of fabric decoration. This was the first and only company to undertake this type of work in Italy. Many of Gregotti’s customers used German embroidery machines for production, until he visited Japan in 1972 and discovered the Tajima multi-head embroidery machine. He was thrilled by the idea of providing his customers with fabulous designs coupled with the latest in high technology embroidery. In 1983, Mr. Gregotti wanted to offer a greater service to his customers and proposed to his school friend, Adolfo Veronelli, to join his project and start a new adventure producing thread. Their vision was to source the best Egyptian cotton and create thread that would supply customers with the greatest product on the market. Aurifil was born. The next generation, Elena Gregotti and Alex Veronelli, joined the company after graduation from university. Shortly thereafter in 1995, Aurifil and Studio Auriga appeared online with their first website. Elena soon discovered the quilt world and was primarily fascinated by what she could only described as works of art (in fact, she called them, “masterpieces”). Despite the quilt market’s vast difference to our current operations, Elena asked her father to approach this market.
Mr. Gregotti 6
Inside the Aurifil Factory near Milan, Italy
Alex Veronelli and Elena Gregotti
Aurifil is committed to the creation of products that will appeal to everyone.
It was quickly obvious that quilters knew quality when they saw it, so we determined to reinvent our packaging, rewrap our spools, and make our thread more appealing to our customers. Fortunately, we were encouraged and astonished at the attention we received when we presented our product for the first time in 2000 at the European Quilt Show in Strasbourg. With our improved strategy, we slowly began selling our product here in the USA through an importer. Mr. Gregotti believed in what we were doing, and continued to invest money in our business. In 2007, we decided that we were ready to officially establish ourselves in the United States; Mr. Gregotti agreed, and Aurifil USA was born. Established in 1983 and based near Milan, Aurifil is a market-oriented company dedicated to the development of new products based on quality and innovation. We are an accomplished Italian company and highly experienced in producing superior quality cotton threads for professional and domestic quilters alike. Our company headquarters is the epicenter from whence new ideas and original items are generated, and always more refined and advanced than before. Our facilities boast the fastest and most sophisticated technology, enabling us to manufacture all of our products and giving us the edge that makes us popular in the market. Our team provides assistance to our customers and satisfies all of the quilting needs through a wide range of threads in several weights and accessories. As a result of our efforts, quilters have the tools with which to design unique creations. In a short period, Aurifil has achieved credit and success all over the world and continues to seek new market inquires with the goal of always doing the best! Our success is based on the development of products with quality and style as our top priorities. Aurifil is committed to the creation of contemporary products that will appeal to everyone.
7
My favorite things about quilters are that they are all so very nice and they have such an incredible variety of talent. I enjoy meeting quilters and learning about what they do, where they live and how they began to play with fabric in such a way that lead them down this artistic path. Recently on our 2014 Quilter’s ‘Tour de France’ one of our guests was Jeanne Treleaven from Adelaide, South Australia. Jeanne is one of the most outgoing and friendly ‘free spirits’ that I have ever met. Her excitement and exuberance for life and passion about quilts was quickly evident. I knew she would have a great story to tell, not to mention quilts to share! Her work is as bright and fun as she is.
My Story By Jeanne Treleaven (Australia) Having been born and raised in a small paper mill town in Maine, I suppose that should mean that I was surrounded by the New England Quilt tradition, but that isn't the case. Instead of fabric and needles, my mother always had knitting needles or a crochet hook in her hands and produced quantities of afghans and sweaters and doilies. Sewing wasn't her first love, but she did have access to fabric off cuts from a sheet manufacturer and actually did make a quilt for my sister and me and possibly one or two baby sized quilts. Growing up, I was never interested in sewing and at 18, I left home to train to be an X-ray technician. With a desire for adventure and travel, once I graduated I decided to see what the other side of the world had to offer me. In 1970 I was offered
I love to know quilter stories about where they live, how they started quilting, why they make what they do. If you have a story to share, please email it to me at newIQnews@gmail.com. You might find your story on these pages one day!
a job in Adelaide, South Australia. Twenty months later, after a blind date, I was engaged to an Australian. We were married in Maine and lived and worked in Boston for 18 months before going back to Australia. I still had no interest in sewing or quilting. Now, I’ve been married 41 years and my creative journey really began in tandem with motherhood. I bought my first sewing machine 38 years ago, attempting to make my own and my children's clothing as well as Cabbage Patch Doll clothes! Yet, I seemed to always be searching for the Artistic Me! This led me to start taking courses at our local Australian TAFE (Technical and Further Education) Institutions. I completed a Certificate in Spinning and Wool Knowledge and then got very heavily into Tapestry Weaving. However, my lack of design understanding pushed me to enroll in and complete a Diploma of Visual and Applied Arts at another TAFE college, The Stanley Street School of Art. I majored in Photography to find a design medium for my weaving. Design modules as well as Art History and ceramics were also included. So, the Mini Art Me was finally emerging! I wavered between tapestry, weaving and photography for a few years. Then, eight years ago I took my first patchwork piecing class. As you might imagine, the flood gates were opened and I am officially a Fabric Diseased person! I can't seem to stop searching for more knowledge about this wonderfully tactile pastime. My first steps were to go and 'see' the quilts at the annual Australasian
8
Living Colour
Quilt Convention and after, feeling brave enough to do 4 days of workshops. This was followed by a trip to the Houston International Quilt Festival for additional workshops, and then to the biennial New Zealand Conference for even more workshops. To learn even more about quilting, I journeyed to Yorkshire, England and finally to France for more information. I am slowly acquiring the knowledge and skills that I have been seeking, and believe it or not I think my next journey will be back to my origins for a New England tour! Have I discovered my complete Artistic Me? Not yet, but I believe that if I had a previous life, I was a famous artist who took it all for granted, so this time around I am going to have to strive very hard Tessellation
to achieve my artistic goals. I love this wonderful art form and can't get enough of touching and/or buying fabrics! How lucky am I?!?
Wallflowers
9
The Red Shoe Project 8
Soles with Soul by Sally Scott (S. Africa) I’m fully convinced that the best ideas are the ones that slip in quietly. You’re getting on with life, when suddenly, there it is, a great idea and you have no idea where it came from. They don’t arrive very often, but when they do they refuse to go away. You can try to ignore them or just push them out the way, but they hover there in the shadows, waiting patiently until in desperation, you decide to pay attention. I’ve experienced a few of these great ideas, and one of them arrived at a pivotal point in my life. I had been through a period of tremendous trauma and disappointment and was in the process of picking myself up and dusting off, when I happened to re-read the story of ‘The Red Shoes’ by Hans Christian Anderson. Despite having read the story many times before, feeling as I was it suddenly came alive and took on a whole new meaning. How often, in our desperation to be loved and accepted or to have life made easier, we are willing to sacrifice the very things that make us who we are. How often we are willing to compromise our Truth in order to have acceptance. In that instant I decided to make myself a pair of red shoes to remind me never to do that again. Over the next few months I labored away, learning how to make shoes, but not just any shoes, they were to be shoes that told a story and reflected who I am. As I was working the mischievous seed of an idea slipped in quietly and tapped me on the shoulder, and fortunately this time I listened to what it had to say. The concept mulled around in my head for a while and before I knew it, it had taken up residence in my heart. I liked the way it felt. It made me smile. And that’s how The Red Shoe Workshop was born. In the three years that followed I prepared myself for what has become my most important venture to date, the launching of a workshop that invites women into the safe and supportive environment of my studio to share stories about their lives and to make shoes that reflect the journey that they’ve taken. The effect has been profound, both on myself and on the women who have walked the road with me. The process, born out of my own suffering and understanding, is fluid, ever moving and changes according to the needs of the group with whom I am working. The success of the workshop means that word is getting out to communities beyond where I live, so I have become quite adept at packing my bags and traveling to where the workshop is needed. To date almost 300 pairs of shoes have been made, by women from all walks of life. What I have learned through this workshop is immeasurable, but the overriding lesson has been that despite our differences, we all understand what it is to be a woman.
**The above has been excerpted from the introduction of my forthcoming book about this creative project.
10
Images from Sally’s Red Shoe Workshops
11
Born in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Sally Scott was raised in pioneering style on a remote cattle ranch in the Eastern Highlands of the country. The distance from the city and the lack of television meant that her mother had time to teach her the fine arts of sewing, embroidery, crochet and knitting, skills that would serve her well throughout the course of her career. After completing university, she started out as a teacher during the intense period of the Rhodesian War. In 1980 the war had ended and Sally and her young family left Zimbabwe and settled in South Africa. It was during this period of transition that she entered into the world of fiber art and over the next twenty years took part in numerous textile exhibitions, both as a participant and a teacher. Sally’s work is strongly individual, reflecting her personal life experience and influenced by the colors and textures of Africa. Today she is a full time, award winning artist, specializing in Fiber Art, Landscape Painting and Drawing. She lives in Grahamstown, South Africa where she runs a private art studio.
To contact Sally for more information or discuss her bringing the ‘RED SHOES WORKSHOP’ to your area, visit her website: www.sallyscott.co.za, or refer to her blog: www.sallyscottsart.wordpress.com or email: sallyscottza@hotmail.com
12
The anniversary celebrations commemorating the 20th anniversary of the European Patchwork Meeting did not disappoint as festivities included special exhibits that featured works from a variety of countries and artists. Quilts and fiber art were exhibited throughout four villages in Val d’ Argent which is in Alsace, France. With unusual beginnings, this show began as a result of a symposium held in 1993 which was originally planned to commemorate the foundation of the Amish movement in 1693. Part of the symposium included a display of Amish quilts owned and curated by collector Jacques Légeret; this quilt exhibition was very well received and was covered widely by various media throughout the world. The result was the first European Patchwork Meeting held in the same area during 1995. This year, to celebrate this important anniversary, Jacques Légeret brought his Amish quilt collection to Alsace once again. The exhibit also included antique and vintage Mennonite quilts and they were beautifully displayed in the Saint Marie aux Mines’ Theater.
13
All of the exhibits at the 2014 European Patchwork Meeting included breathtaking work by talented artists. However, the one that I overheard the most talk about was the one from Russia held in the Saint Madeline Church of Saint Marie aux Mines. Visiting the exhibit, I noticed visitors were fascinated and spellbound by what seemed to be the variety and detail of the incredible Russian works. Spectators spent long minutes examining the details of each piece hanging along the sanctuary walls. The images on these pages are but a few of my favorites from the Russian quilt exhibition.
Flowering Fern by Julia Smolina (All folded triangles)
Russian Song By Marina Mamonova
14
The Blessing Gifting – trptych By Oksana Zhilinskaya The Fifth Wheel By Anna Urusova
Pink Evening in the Village By Svetlan Gorbacheva
15
Houston – Southeast Asia – Thailand – France Bali – Ireland – Alaska – Caribbean – New England European Christmas Markets Our 2015 calendar is packed with fun and interesting trips that have been planned with quilters in mind. Won’t you consider one of our itineraries today? For more information see our website:
HTTP://WORLDOFQUILTSTRAVEL.COM