A Visit to Cary, NC and a PAQA-South Exhibit

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to meet up with a group of exciting quilt artists in Cary, NC.  Many of these women belong both to the SAQA (Studio Art Quilters Association) and PAQA-South (Professional Art Quilters Alliance which is not affiliated with the national PAQA group).  They have one meeting a  year and membership is open to anyone interested in becoming more professional in fiber arts -- I am definitely going to be joining.  They have two exhibits a year.

Although this was a SAQA meeting, we met in the facility housing the fall exhibit of the PAQA-South show.  The theme of the show was quilt art from photographs --so it was almost totally representational and I loved it.

This is Sunset Point by Roxane Lessa.  It was one of my favorites.The show runs from Sept 26 through October 20 at the Page-Walker Arts & History Center in Cary NC and I highly recommend that anyone in the area attend it.  The quilts were just beautiful and showed so many different interpretations and techniques.

I, of course, loved this one as it is a theme after my own  heart as well as the technique that I most like to use -- it was large and beautifully done.  It is Shell Study #1 by Eileen Williams.

This was Iris Nirvana by Nanette Zeller.  There were many small works in the exhibit which featured incredible detail and threadwork.

This was a really small but beautiful piece by Eileen Williams called Coastal Sunset.  She showed us many more examples in show and tell.

The driving was made a delight by having Patricia Mattison as my navigator for the five hours we spent driving to and from Cary. It was delightful to get to know her better and find so many things we had in common (including living in Batavia NY at the same time!!).  It was nice to meet all  these new women. I even met a woman from Southport (just on the other side of the ferry here) who had just made Quilt National for the first time (page 51 in the book).  She is interested in dyeing and has the house to do it so there may be some more dyeing in my future (although I will have to buy fabric and supplies to do it).  All in all, it was a great day.  I was very impressed with Cary and see why so many people have moved there from up north!