Report from the European Patchwork Meeting

There was a lot of buzz around the Colourplay exhibition at Carrefour Européen du Patchwork 2014.   Here are extracts from the official program and the Catalogue Prestige 2014: 

And our exhibition formed the backdrop for a news item on Alsace Matin television:

We were fortunate that Colourplay was displayed at Espace des Tisserands, the premier exhibition space in the village of Sainte Marie aux Mines with gallery-style white walls, high ceilings and excellent lighting:  

This is the view from outside.  Doesn't even quilt show have a saucisson stand near by?!
 
And here are some overall shots of the valley:

Inside our exhibit formed a colourful display:

On Thursday and Friday, school groups visited Espace des Tisserands and completed detailed assignments on their favourite quilts.  Several student chose pieces from the Colourplay exhibit:

THANK YOU to the many people who let us know how much they enjoyed our book and how our collaborative project had inspired them to start their own group challenge.  This is a selfie of Brenda with Anita Fors (left) and Gunnel Wright from Göteborg, Sweden who are part of  the Fria Tyglar/ Free Reins challenge group:

If you missed the European Patchwork Meeting and live near Belgium, you can catch the final Colourplay exhibition at Association Belge du Patchwork, Enghien, Belgium: 2-5 October 2014.

Colourplay at Midsomer Quilting

Thank you to the all of the UK quilting enthusiasts who visited our exhibition at Midsomer Quilting. Here are a couple of photos:

Inspired by Twelve by Twelve, Midsomer Quilting has staged their own 12x12in challenge with their customers with a "Fruit" challenge in 2011 followed by "Book" in 2012.  Check out the virtual galleries on the Midsomer Quilting website. This year the challenge is "Film/Movie". Entries close on 2 November (see the rules).  It's fun to see other challenges.

By the way, Colourplay will next be on display in the United States at:

• AQS Quilt Show, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA 14 – 17 August 2013; and
• AQS Quilt Show, Des Moines, Iowa, USA 2 – 5 October 2013.

New Challenge Groups

We are always kind of chuffed when we hear about other internet-based challenge groups that have been inspired by the Twelve by Twelve International Art Quilt Challenge. Check out:

• Carnival, the first reveal of the new Latitude Quilts group; and
• self portraits the first reveal by the re-constituted, reinvigorated Art Quilts Around the World.

Stitching Across the Ditch are into their second cycle of challenges and are currently revealing the "Colours" challenge. If your group is has been inspired by the Twelve by Twelve International Art Quilt Challenge and has an online presence, contact us and we will add your group to the list of Friends & Followers in our blog sidebar.

Sharing the Creative Spirit.

At the beginning of August, I attended the AGM of Eastwood Quilters in Sydney to give a presentation about the Twelve by Twelve project. With more than 50 quilts in tow (admittedly most were 12x12in), I made quite a sight as I travelled to the city by train.  Then I found out that the group was also sharing quilts from their very own group challenge.  Inspired by our example and after visiting the exhibition of our Theme series at Gosford in 2010, the Tuesday group of Eastwood Quilters set up 12x12 project and announced the following challenges upfront:

1. Bird, 
2. Flower, 
3. Music
4. Window
5. Re-cycle
6. Lighthouse
7. In the Cupboard
8. Lost & Found
9. Tree
10. Smells from the Kitchen
11. Everything Old is New Again
12. Butterflies

12x12 Challenge Quilts by Carmel Issacs and Kay Murray

Kay Murray created her own personal series incorporating storybook themes

12x12 quilts by Mayke Waddell and Susan Lindsay

Susan Rowe has completed all 12 challenges

More quilts by Susan Rows

Thank you to Eastwood Quilters for sharing their creative spirit and inviting me to share my work. Thank you too for these beautiful pink cyclamen that survived the train trip home.

If your group is has been inspired by the Twelve by Twelve International Art Quilt Challenge and has an online presence, contact us and we will add your group to the list of Friends & Followers in our blog sidebar..

The Butterfly Effect

Now that I have dispatched my completed works to Manly Art Gallery & Museum for the forthcoming Regeneration: Contemporary Quilt Textiles 2012 exhibition (27 April - 4 June 2012), I am ready to focus on my Metamorphosis piece.  Tons of time, right?!

I've been contemplating the so-called butterfly effect.  First, there is the notion of a delicate flap of butterfly wings reverberating around the world in a hurricane crescendo.  How a short e-mail from Diane in September 2007 turned into this project, a blog, a website, a BOOK, and an international exhibition tour that has inspired  so many Friends & Followers.  Incredible!

According to Wikipedia, the butterfly effect is also "a metaphor for sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory".  In other words, the " phenomenon whereby a minor change in circumstances can cause a large change in outcome".  What if Helen had never alerted me to the presence of Diane's e-mail, which had been diverted to a spam filter account, and I have never replied yes, I want to play?!  How different my creative endeavours might have been over the past few years.

Then there's another case of synchronicity that has me wondering whether, in a Sliding Doors-esque moment,  I had left my sketches on the train in San Francisco and Kathleen Probst had found them as I slipped into an alternate universe.  Here's my sketch from late November and here's her mid-December blog post, spooky huh?!  Needless to say, I LOVE Kathleen's quilt (you can see the completed version on her website home page).

Since then, I have come up with some design ideas that have nothing to do with butterflies but I don't have anything to show you yet.  In the meantime, enjoy another Agaristidae Agricola Donovan dayflying moth that I managed to snap as it fluttered by.

Check out another fun reveal...

Our friends the Tangled Textiles just revealed their fourth set of challenge quilts on the theme "Looking Up."  It's fun to see what each of them did with the theme -- go take a look!

More Friends of Twelve by Twelve

As Diane and Deborah have recently remarked, it is a joy to hear that others have been so inspired by the Twelve by Twelve project (through this blog, our BOOK or a real, live, in-the-cloth exhibition) that they have embarked upon challenges themselves.  Did you know we keep a Friends of Twelve by Twelve listing in our sidebar?

12" x 12" Waikato are the latest addition to our friends listing.  You can read all about this group in the  the latest issue of my favourite quilting magazine, New Zealand Quilter.   They got together after viewing the Twelve by Twelve exhibit at the Craft and Quilt Fair in Hamilton last year and have completed seven challenges including Letters and Song.

Other groups on the list include:

• Twelve by the Dozen who have also completed seven challenges  such as Seeing Red and Connections.  It's exciting to see how some of the members have used their challenge pieces as a starting point for exploring themes or techniques further in other works;
• 12 Connected is a group of fiber artists that have banded together to create a series of twelve 11"x17" art quilts over a two year period. Their latest challenge is "Square".
• Art for 12 have already completed one full cycle of challenges and have enjoyed it so much, they are now working on their second series.  Their blog is in Dutch but there is a translation gadget in their sidebar.
• Keeping to an international flavour, Barcelona is the latest challenge by Art Quilts Around the World.
• Fiberactions are creating pieces for the final challenge in the current iteration of the group.  Their challenge theme is Structure.
• The International Quilt Challenge is a new (ish) group.  Their second challenge is "Through the Window" and there are lots of great photos and musings on their blog.
• Kathleen Probst has joined fellow Boise textile artist  Lisa Flowers Ross  in shadowing some of our Colorplay challenges.  See Kathleen's Gray and Orange and Lisa's Orange piece Summer Breeze.  On the East Coast, Joanne of Wednesday's Child has also been playing along.  She made some wonderfully quirky carrots for the Orange Colorplay.
• The Material Mavens  have been working on Harmony.
• Stitching Across the Ditch  (aka the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand) work in a 12" by 9" format and their latest challenge was "Time"
• Tangled Textiles work in a 16x16in format and have completed 3 challenges including Tools. exploring
• Textile Abstractions is a North American group and their current challenge is Escape.
• Uncommon Threads get to meet in person but also keep a blog.  Their latest challenge was Totems.
• Most quilters I know have a great affinity for hardware stores (and stationery stores, but that's another story.  Hardware Store is one of the subjects explored by We Are the Baker's Dozen.

If you or your group has been inspired by Twelve by Twelve to participate in  a challenge, leave a comment, share your work and inspire others.  Keep that creative quilting karma circulating!

Fruit

During the UK debut of the Theme series at Midsomer Quilting, so many visitors made comments like ' Where on earth do they get their ideas?' or 'I don't know how they do it' that De and Chris decided to encourage customers to have a go by setting the theme of fruit. The challenge, open to all customers, will result in a show in the shop gallery and the best twelve as chosen by visitors votes will go on to the Quilt Show at Radstock Museum in Februrary 2013.
This is my entry Fez Market.

And yes, that is real dried fruit on there, albeit I varnished it to detract nibblers of either the human or insect kind! Excuse the overly squared edges - the Photoshop Ipad app is useful but nowhere near as sophisticated as the full programme.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all our readers and followers!  Our next reveal (Eggplant) is on 12 January.  In the meantime, I think I can safely say that these pieces experimenting with the palette will not proceed to completion but I had fun making a mess with scraps, oilsticks, pastels and fabric paint:

If you're looking for completed works, you might like to check out the self-portrait challenge of Art Quilts Around the World that were revealed on New Year's Eve.

Dallas Quilt Show Appearances

I entered my Fractal Tree (from our Mathematics theme) in the Dallas Quilt Celebration last year. One of my local art quilter friends thought it was wonderful, but wondered if it was a bit lost among the larger works. So... she hatched a plan to gather several 12x12 quilts for a special exhibit.

She and the rest of the "twisted stitchers" (our small local art quilt group), made 12x12 quilts and invited other friends to join us. We exhibited 65 quilts! They looked great. I had initially considered inviting all the "twelves" from this group, but I didn't want to flood the exhibit or seem like I was showing off with such a huge group of brilliant friends.

Here you can see two of the three quilts I made for "blue, white and a bit of black" and my pink quilt.
It really was inspiring to see so many quilts in this format!

Fellow Challengers

"12 Connected" is a new challenge group that is pursuing a challenge process similar to ours, but their size requirement is 11"x17".  They've just revealed their first challenge set on the theme of Sanctuary.

The artwork is lovely -- go take a look!

Around and about

If you're thinking it's been a little quiet here on the blog, you're probably right.  The Twelves are busy working on some important "homework" assignments, writing our BOOK for Lark.  We're having such fun comparing notes and revisiting old posts.  We are looking forward to sharing all of this with you in due course.

In the meantime, the Blue White Black reveal is not until 1 March 2010. If you are interested in seeing some new material, why not check out some of our Friends & Followers including:

• 12 Connected is a new group of fiber artists that have banded together to create a series of twelve 11"x17" art quilts over a two year period.The first theme is "Sanctuary" and they are due to share their completed quilts any day now;
• Art for 12 revealed their fur-themed quilts at the end of 2009 and are now exploring the theme of "Connected".  Their blog is in Dutch but there's a translation widget in the side bar;
• there are all sorts of wonderful mandela quilts over at Art Quilts Around the World, maybe they were channelling Terry's Twelfth of Twelve work;
• Digital to Textile: 8 Views is a new challenge that Karen belongs to. Every two months, after a sumptuous pot luck dinner, one of the group members disseminats a black and white photo to the group. Each artist, using textiles as the primary medium, will create a work using that photo as inspiration. The maximum perimeter is 122 inches.At the dinner held the month following receipt of the photo, they will share our project-in-process and critique each other's work;
• Terri has also joined a new theme challenge group - Fiberactions.  They are working in a 16"x20" format.  Their first theme was "Initiative" and now they are exploring "Communication";
• the 12 by 12 Project are now up to their sixth theme - Chaos.

Chaos is a pretty accurate description of my studio right now so I'm going to go and start tidying up.  I could be some time...

Share the Rising Passion

In just two weeks (on 1 August US time), we will be sharing our passion themed art quilts right here on this blog. In the meantime, our sewing machines and stitching fingers are running hot!

If you would like to shadow our project, it's not too late for you make you very own passion themed quilt. Just let us know by leaving a comment and leaving a link to your blog and we will add you to our Friends of Twelve by Twelve blogroll. If you are just happy to enjoy our art quilts, you are welcome to join up as a "follower" by adding your details to the widget in the sidebar.

While you are waiting for our passion quilts to be displayed, you might like to take a look at the latest art quilts shown by some of the Friends of Twelve by Twelve at:

• Art for 12 - Lizards
• Art Quilts Around the World - Connections

And don't forget, you can subscribe to our blog RSS feed or receive updates by e-mail by using the subscribe buttons in our blog sidebar. You can also subscribe to the comments feed.

Fellow travellers

While you are waiting for our window quilts to be displayed, you might like to take a look at the latest art quilts shown at:

• Art for 12 - Water
• Around the World in 20 Quilts - Brave New World

Don't forget, you can subscribe to our blog RSS feed or receive updates by e-mail by using the subscribe buttons in our blog sidebar. You can also subscribe to the comments feed.

Wishing you a happy and creative 2009

We Twelves would like to wish you a happy and creative New Year. We are looking forward to sharing our continuing exploration of new themes and the collaborative quilt mosaics that result from these challenges.

As a special thank you to all our readers, friends and followers (see sidebar) for your kind encouragement, comments and support, we have put together a 2009 calendar featuring the art quilts from the Mathematics theme challenge that you are welcome to download and pass on. (The red boxes highlight the reveal dates of our next five challenges and we couldn't let 12/12 pass without a little fanfare.)

Download 2009 12 x 12 Calendar (157KB pdf) or click on the image below.

Also, as a new initiative for 2009, you can now subscribe to receive Twelve by Twelve blog updates by e-mail. Just click on this e-mail subscription link and follow the prompts.

Friends and Followers of Twelve by Twelve

As we Twelves get cracking on mathematics-themed quilts (if I say it, will it happen?), you might like to check out the blogs of the Friends of Twelve by Twelve:

• Lindi was the lucky winner of a set of Twelve by Twelve notecards as part of our midpoint celebrations last month;
• Art for 12 are Dutch quiltmakers who were inspired by our challenge and are undertaking a similar challenge with different themes. "Portrait" is their current theme and some striking works are emerging. Don't worry if you don't speak Dutch, there is a translation button at the top of their side bar;
• Around the World in 20 Quilts is another group inspired by Twelve by Twelve. They are working to a quarterly timetable and their current theme is "stellar";
  
• Joan and her Gang of Four are following the 12x12 in format with a view to creating a body of work suitable for a possible exhibition;
• Lisa Flowers Ross has been playing along with our challenge. Check out her shelter-themed quilt!
• Similarly Joanne at Wednesday's Child has been playing along as a friend of Twelve by Twelve; and
• 12 Square is a new group planning to make twelve quilts in twelve months in a virtual quilting bee.

As Diane says:

"In case you're wishing that you could do something like that too, let me tell you how easy it was to start! I was wishing I had a journal quilt group with artist whose work inspired and stimulated me and would push me to make my own work better, and I started cruising blogs via the Artful Quilters blog ring, noticing whose work I just adored. I summoned up a bit of courage and emailed the artists whose work I admired, and proposed a group challenge.

Once I had some willing participants, we agreed on a format, set up a group blog so we could chat together and post our thoughts, and voila. Look what happened! So if you're thinking that you'd like to give something like this a try, I'd encourage you to think about what sort of challenge you'd like to be in, and then just invite others to join you."

If you've been inspired and have started or start a similar challenge, let us know and we will add you to our "Friends of Twelve by Twelve" blogroll. If you are just happy to enjoy our art quilts, you are welcome to join up as a "follower" by adding your details to the new widget in the sidebar.

Friends

Don't forget to check out the friends of Twelve by twelve, they are all awsome, including Art for 12 which is in a language I don't understand, but I quickly figured out the challange was about eyes!

Extended community

Hey, have you checked out the "community" quilts that our friend, Joanne, at Wednesday's Child made? She is listed as a "Friend of Twelve by Twelve" in our sidebar and is, I think, the only one who revealed a community piece as we revealed ours. She actually shows two, both very nice and she has written a lot about her pieces and thoughts on community. Very nicely done.

More chocolate...

Have you been checking out the chocolate quilts that our "friends" (in the sidebar) are revealing?

Joan is a woman after my own heart and hers is Mexican mole. Yum.

Lisa's whimsical box of chocolates will be auctioned to benefit AIDS research.

Joanne created the luscious textures and colors of chocolate. You can also see her dandelion quilt in yesterday's post.

I love this! The more the merrier, I say. Are there others?