A SAQA Valentine's Day

A BIG THANK YOU... to all the folks that turned out on Valentine's Day for a few hours of fun. Fun we did have...it started out with a whole room of people putting together mat frames. The tape dispensers buzzed and scissors snipped and within a half hour we had close to 200 frames ready to receive the 'specials' of the day.

Those specials were samples sent in by quilt artists all over the world to be part of the SAQA@20 Trunk show. These pieces are now all framed and on their way to Texas where a dedicated member of SAQA will be handling requests for the trunk show of treasures to travel

over the next year.

The lucky volunteers had a great time seeing so many of the little treasures and it was interesting that everyone there tended to covet a different artist's piece. I'm not telling which was my favorite... it would really be to hard to decide. Anyways, the photos here are of many of the volunteers both for the matting party on Saturday, and the fun work of photographing everything on Sunday.

Hope everyone gets to have a chance to covet their own favorite. ~Rose

My Summer Vacation - Workshop

Hi All - This was a great weekend, and I can delightfully report that I was able to share in adventures through purple heathers of Scotland and blue waters of Greece, for these were a couple of the locales that workshop attendees chose to share in fabric and learn how to use Fast-Piece Applique to portray those memories.

The several students that gathered in Newbury Park at the http://www.quiltersstudio.com/ had a lot of fun. Drawing up the designs and choosing fabrics were part of the fun of the first day. Then all was sewn together, couched and made ready for embellishments.

Some of the attendees are shown here: Racine, Tricia, and Celeste.

For a calendar of upcoming workshops you can go to my website.

http://www.rosehughes.com/

Quilt Art Commission

This week I finally began to see a light... be it small, and way down the a seemingly endless tunnel... Yeah, there is light!

During my Tuesday play group we had the opportunity to open close to 200 packages, sent in by quilt artists all around the world to participate in the SAQA@20 Trunk Show. Boy, there were moments when each of us held up a piece that just could not be missed. It was like Christmas all over again. After this was done, I was able to pull out a wonderful commission piece that I have been working on. It is being designed for a public space in the Seattle area. Pictures of the Cascades were provided and they also wanted to have the piece include roses... big, bold roses.

It was great to finally get to sewing on this project, for it is so much fun to stitch all those bright colored pieces of fabrics together and watch as they begin to take shape. The photos here are of the rose section of the quilt top, and I actually got the top done!

On Friday I headed off to The Quilters Studio ( http://www.quiltersstudio.com/ ) to teach a brand new workshop called My Summer Vacation. It's a workshop designed so everyone can pull together photos and memorabilia from that special trip. Will tell you more about it later.

~Rose

Organizing Quilt Art Spaces & Life

January has been especially chaotic, for besides all the normal day-to-days of things to do, I have also been rearranging every room in the house. This has all been so that I could move my studio into a bigger & better space, but in the process everything in the house has been picked up, thought about and moved, or been moved on. You think when you start a project like this that it will take so much time, but then you start to find all sorts of things. I was surprised at just how many places hidden behind this thing or that, that my cat Edgar had made his home. This meant that I found piles of black fur all over the place! Who knew. At a certain point this month the pile of things to be moved on had grown pretty high in the hallway, which is also where the closet is that holds the broom & mop. I knew that the broom was just begging to come out....

It is never a small undertaking. A true test of my organizational skills.
Today I was painting furniture and even found some time to quilt.
The studio is beginning to take shape and I am looking foward to spending more time there... andy day now.

Look for pictures soon. ~R

Northern California Quilt Council

It is always a treat to travel up to the Northern California Quilt Council (ncqc) and present to their member guilds' reps. More than anything it's the travelling up and back with my friend and fellow quilt artist Cindy Rinne. She and I have been on the road of quilt artist together since 1996 when we met at the first meeting of Quilts On The Wall: Fiber Artists, www. quiltsonthewall.com; though at that time the group had no name.

We have been travelling to NCQC together for a number of years now, and it really is a great time of catching up, sharing ideas and finding new haunts.

This time was no different, and we went looking for an arts recylcling center in Oakland. It is a favorite place of another of our friends, Joanell. We were equipped with a map and had plenty of time to run our hands through the 4,000 sq ft of stuff. We got there and Cindy started right in at the front of the store. I headed for the back... we both met in the middle at a huge laundy bin filled, brimming over with tie silks. There were traditional patterns and the more fun contemporary designs. There were packages of samples still rolled and unopened and there were BIG, big pieces not even cut up. Everyone stopping by the bin was amazingly willing to help find 'what you're looking for'. There were those that sifted through the pieces at the top, and those like me that dived deep in search of those pieces that may not have seen the light of day.

We had a great time and the prices were not to be beat.

The pictures we took of us inside the store diving for silk did not come out well, but you can see Cindy here as we arrived at our destination. After this we headed to the hotel where we have a great time sharing the facilities with the refinery workers. This hotel certainly takes good care of these guys, and we reap the benefits.

At the meeting the next day we had a great time chatting with everyone, see all the teachers there present. A great time as usual. In a very chance moment we had our photo snapped together.

We then had a fun time having lunch with a group of reps and teacher before heading south. It was a quick trip, but filled with fun, laughter and figuring out just what it is we're going to jump into when we get home....right??!!!

We both agree sewing is what we want to do. A bit of studio time is what we're hoping for.

Look for more about studio time soon. I'm holding out hope! ~R

Road to California

I spent last weekend at the quilt show, Road To California. As usual it was a wonderful weekend filled with great moments. I have been involved and attending this show since 1996, when in my role as president of the Southern California Quilt Council, we helped put together the first of the quilt shows that were to be connected with the quilters retreat Road to California. It's amazing to see how Carolyn has grown this show, and how everything works so well and continues to just get better.

At this time of year it's really fun to walk through the show and take in the festive feeling as friends meet, entrants have their photos taken in front of their quilts, and folks shop for all that is new and wonderful. And, shop they did!

This year I had a great time showing my new quilt patterns as the 'stunt quilter' in Natalie Barnes booth, Beyond the Reef. We worked really hard but had an absolute blast cutting fabric, helping with color selections and meeting so many people from all over the country. There's always a lot of laughter in Natalie's booth and this year was no exception. Thank you Natalie... and of course my cohorts Vickie, Barb & Lisa. There is a photo of the five of us, but by the time I got my camera out only Natalie and The Vixter were holding down the fort.


The quilts were great this year as well, and it was the opening venue for Noble Elements: Spring Forward. This is a group of quilters who have been exhibiting together for a number of years, and this is the first of our new series of quilts that will thematically cover Spring, Summer, Fall & Winter. My plan is have these pieces be a place for my ravens to appear, and my quilt this year is called, It's in the Air. It's always fun to see how the theme is interpeted and this year was no different.



On Sunday I was in Eileen Alber's booth, The Quilters Studio signing books. Sunday is the quiet day at Road. It starts out very low key... (probably due to the party fun happening on Saturday night) but by noon it is hopping. I had a great time. It was fun to talk with so many people and be able to sign copies of my new book. One woman stood in front of the table where I sat and said to her friends, "this is the magical book", and when I told her I was the author she was so excited. I just had to have my picture taken with her, and want to thank Debra for her wonderful description of my book.

A great time was had by all, and by Sunday I was contentedly tired. As I left I took a last quick tour to see everyone enjoying the festival atmosphere and soak up that feeling to recall and enjoy another day.

Now I'm off to northern California to present at council.
~Rose

The New Year is Here!

Someone blinked and the month of December was gone. I do hope that your holidays were filled with wonder and that '09 got ushered in well. I personally spent the week between holidays relocating my studio and making all kinds of changes to make this happen. I am hoping to have most everything tucked away in it's new home soon.

I also went in search of words to get the New Year started right. I found a lot of beautiful quotes from some amazing sources but I knew when I found the one I'm sharing here that it truly summed up my hopes for 2009.

'Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nuture your dream." ~ Lao Tzu

May 2009 bring you waters of optimism and creative ideas so your dreams may be watered turning any problem into opportunity.

Light & Happiness
~Rose