Welcome to the SAQA New York Blog

Monday, October 28, 2013

Quilts=Art=Quilts Exhibit opened yesterday, October 27th, at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY, and runs through January 5, 2014. Read more about it here:
http://www.schweinfurthartcenter.org/exhibits/current.html

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Helene Kusnitz has a piece in the Long Island Craft Guild's show Feast or Famine



The piece (shown below) is a quilt called So Many Flowers

You can see more of Helene’s work on her website: www.helenekusnitz.com

An Introduction to Your New NY Co-Reps


Hello Everyone,

As you may have heard, Gilda Hecht and I are your new SAQA NY co-representatives. 

What follows is a bit of information about Gilda, in her own words:

“I have been quilting since 1975, when as a volunteer in the local elementary school, I was asked to work with the third graders on a bi-centennial quilt. I had made a reputation as a sewing person and instead of being a reading or math helper, I had the children design and create individual blocks representing Long Island. It was a success and I was hooked.

I proceeded to learn as much as possible about the craft and was taught the basics from whatever sources were then available.

I then progressed to Quilting by the Lake, and became more immersed in quilting than I would have thought possible.    

There was a local quilting organization, Long Island Quilters that I also joined as well as the LI chapter of the EGA. In addition I am a member of the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework and a small art quilt group, Signature Art Quilters.  

Quilting has become a major passion in my life. It carries with it storage problems, time loss, and some frustration, but I love it. With the passing of my sweet husband two years ago it has kept me vital and happy, if one can say that.”

And as for me:

Under her watchful eye, my Nana put a needle and thread in my hands when I was five. By the time I was twelve, I’d saved enough babysitting money to purchase my first sewing machine, a Brother™ Straight Stitch for $60. During my high school and college years I was sewing my own garments. 

My mom was a painter, working in oils and pastels. In my late teens and early twenties I, too, painted in oils. Over time, I grew tired of the need to constantly wash brushes and deal with the storage and safety issues of linseed oil and turpentine. So I turned to fabric and thread and never looked back. That was nearly thirty years ago.

Quilting combines my love of sewing and passion for creating art and is as necessary to me as breathing.

My work reflects my response to life experiences, events and feelings--sometimes whimsical, sometimes serious. 

Happily distracted by bright, shiny objects, my abstract quilts almost always contain beads and metallic thread; I sometimes think I quilt as an excuse to work with glass beads. I love the feel of them as I work them into a design and the resulting texture and color enhancement of the finished piece. I am a cartoonist and that imagery has also found its way into some of my quilts. 

Please feel free to contact me at lorilight808@gmail.com with any art quilt-related news that you would like shared with the NY membership via this blog.

We are very excited to be able to serve as NY representatives and welcome any and all comments and ideas from you, the NY members. 

Your SAQA NY co-reps,

Lori Light 
Gilda Hecht