SAQA Benefit Auction kickoff

River Dreams

 It's time!  The SAQA Benefit auction begins tomorrow, 9/16/16, with Diamond Day bidding, an early bird opportunity to purchase any quilt for $1000.  Starting Monday at 2pm EDT, bidding on section 1 quilts starts, with prices at $750 and further reduced throughout the week until a final price of $100.  All proceeds benefit SAQA's exibitions, publications, and educational outreach.

River Dreams, which I made specifically for the auction, in included in the section 1 quilts.  It's a unique opportunity to own work of mine in a size format that I seldom visit.  It incorporates a lot of the elements I've been using in my ongoing series The River.

There's over 400 works available in the Benefit Auction, so there's sure to be something that catches your eye and speaks to you.  Details are on the SAQA site here, with lots of easily navigatible information.  The individual link to River Dreams is here.

River Dreams, detail

You can read my original blog post about making this artwork here.

Have fun bidding, and good luck!

Plein Air at the Govenor's Residence, redux

Magnolia

 Remember Magnolia? I began the center panel of this artquilt working plein air at the PA Governor's Residence last September. You can read all about it in my previous blog posts here.

I had such a great experience the first time, I jumped at the chance to do it again.  I'll be at the Art in the Garden event, part of the Second Sunday series at the Governor's Residence, this coming Sunday, September 11, from 1 - 6 pm. The Residence is at 2035 N. Front St., Harrisburg, PA.  Weather permitting, I'll be outside near the Rose Garden.

I learned a lot from my from my extemporaneous creative involvement last year, and this time I will be well prepared.  I pre-made a couple of background panels, with wool, machine needlefelted on wool/rayon felt.  That way I can get right to laying out whateve scene I chose to work on.

Part of the joy of an event like this is talking and interacting with visitors.  Fiber art is still a novel artistic media to many people, so education and outreach are always part of my goals.  In the "never throw anything out" department, I remembered I had some step-outs I had made for my felting demo on Quilting Arts TV.

 With a bit of tweaking I was able to repurpose them into a flip book, showing the steps I use to built up a typical felted and stitched panel.  Textile work is very tactile and tempting to touch, so this way interested visitors can see and handle the work

It's like magic!

If you are in the area, I would love to see you in the garden on Sunday.  If all goes according to plan, I will be live tweeting and Instagraming and Facebook-ing, so check in on your social media of choice:

Facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/suerenostudio
Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/suereno
Tumblr: http://suerenostudio.tumblr.com
Instagram: sue_reno_studio 

As always, thanks for reading and commenting.