Quilting Arts Magazine Winter 2023

WINTER WINDS ARE BLOWING, temperatures are dropping, and a thin sheet of ice covered my driveway this morning. Every crunch of gravel, each shimmering silver leaf, and individual droplet of frozen water reflecting on dry grass speaks volumes. Inspiration, even in the depth of winter, is everywhere. And all that inspiration can be shared, layer by layer, in the work we create as art quilters. The very thought of ‘layering’ was the inspiration for this issue of QUILTING ARTS, and the theme is explored on every page. So much of the work an art quilter does in the studio requires multiple steps, and each of those actions adds new depths to the work’s complexity. From the start of any project, that first layer is always the vision of the artist, followed…

In our last issue we started a new section for It’s Your Turn where we will ask readers to answer a question, share a tip, idea, or something else based on a prompt we provide. In the Fall issue, we asked, ‘Which non-fiber artist inspires your work and why?’ We were pleased to hear from so many of you—and you included photos of your work, too! We received too many wonderful letters and photos to include them all here but please enjoy some inspiration from your fellow readers. Glass artist Dale Chihuly has provided the inspiration for two of my art quilts. He has had three installations at the Phoenix Botanical Gardens. I visited the first two and was overwhelmed by the beauty of his glass works and how it was staged…

Ana Buzzalino is a fiber and mixed-media artist, surface designer, teacher, and lecturer. Her love of layers and texture combine in her original work. She achieves results using a combination of monoprinting, hand-painting, free-motion stitching, and hand-stitching among other techniques. Ana is currently teaching online from her studio in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. anabuzzalino.com Valerie S. Goodwin is a mixed-media fiber artist and architect whose works of fine art are included in museum and private collections. Most of her work is inspired by a love of aerial views of landscapes and cities. Many of her quilts are based on maps. Her latest work explores the ‘lace-like’ possibilities of laser cut fabric. valeriegoodwinart.com Margarita Korioth is a fiber artist and quilt instructor living in and teaching online classes from Tennessee. Her recent work features surface design…

“I make contemporary art quilt portraits of Celtic megalithic Imake (Bronze Age) stones and monoliths—think Stonehenge—and more recent, but still centuries old, Irish monastic ruins. My ‘stones’ portfolio now exceeds 60 quilts. I grew up loving to sew—just being at the sewing machine, working with and holding fabric, discovering each type of fabric’s unique feel and characteristics, sewing late into the night. I started with doll clothes as a child and later became a professional seamstress. I longed, though, to somehow combine my sewing ‘craftsmanship’ with greater levels of creativity. So, after being introduced by a friend to art quilting, I decided to jump in full-time—not as a hobby but as a profession. Brash and perhaps risky, I knew (and hoped) that it was the correct path forward. I also knew that…

WE KNOW IT IS EVERY ART QUILTER’S DREAM TO SEE THEIR WORK ON THE COVER OF Quilting Arts Magazine. In the past 22 years, we’ve published 116 issues, each featuring amazing art quilts made by contributors to the magazine. Some of the cover quilts have been gleaned from the work of well-known artists from our gallery pages. Others came from In the Spotlight, Artist Profile, and technique articles. Several cover artists—like Kathy York and Susan Brubaker Knapp—have been highlighted multiple times. Now, it is your turn to shine! Being a cover artist is now a realistic goal—and here’s why. Every magazine needs a cover quilt, and we’re excited to announce that we’ve reserved an issue to showcase the work of an art quilter who’s yet to be featured. The cover of QUILTING…

We can thank the Great Depression for the awakening of American art. Before this time period, when wealthy Americans wanted to decorate their homes, they looked to Paris or London for fine art. They were searching for figurative art, landscapes, and old masters. The idea of purchasing artwork from a living artist, much less one in the United States, just wasn’t the norm. America spent the 1930s and early ’40s building up a support system around artists, musicians, and other performing arts. And these ideas took hold during the Depression when artists were hired under a program managed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). They were paid monthly wages and in return, they worked as teachers, performers, and creators of public art projects. The shift from so-called starving artists to artists who…