I hung out in Grand Junction on Saturday after my workshop, mainly so I could attend a meeting of the statewide guild in Colorado- Colorado Quilt Council, and a meeting of the Art Quilt Association, the art quilt group in Grand Junction that I joined last spring.
The reason for attending CQC was to hear Barbara Olson from Billings. Unfortunately, the business part of the meeting took so long that we only got to hear about twenty minutes of her talk before we had to leave for the afternoon meeting. I did get a closeup look at a couple of her quilts- they were pretty amazing. This statewide guild has lots of members- I about fell off my chair when the treasurer gave her report. The group has a six figure bank balance, and I'm told that the figure doesn't include their CD's!!
The AQuA meeting was mainly for members to bring quilts for a challenge called Artifacts. Eighteen quilts were brought to be juried by Carol Shinn, who was doing a two day workshop for the group on Sunday and Monday.
Once all the quilts had been shown, they were on the floor where we could walk around and choose a member's choice award. I had a hard time, there were some well thought out and executed pieces. Here's the group, milling around to choose-
There was also a lively discussion about the future direction of the group- shows, workshops- the same kinds of issues we're struggling with in the surface design group in Salt Lake. AQuA has done a good job of finding venues for their art- this group will be hung at PIQF in California this fall.
I may not make more than three or four meetings a year, but I really enjoyed this group. They are articulate, encouraging, and have several members who consistently produce stellar art. I'm hoping to complete at least one piece for a show at Mesa Verde next year- Susan told me a number of pieces sold, always a nice thing! That would be next on my list of "to do", after the small pieces due at USDG in September.
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