Dinner at Eight Artists Meet in Houston for IQF 2011



Lost Cavern in The Space Between

 Dinner at Eight Artists met once again in Houston for the International Quilt Festival. This year's theme, The Space Between consisted of 37 artists including Natalya Aikens, Frances Holliday Alford, Betty Amador, Astrid Bennett, Loris Bogue, Deborah Borschert, Paula Chung, Joanell Connolly, Cindy Cooksey, Jamie Fingal, Barb Forrister, Linda Frost, Terry Grant, Desiree Habicht, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Lyric Kinard, Susan King, Pam Klebaum, Sherry Kleinman, Susan Brubaker Knapp, Jane LaFazio, Jayne Larson, Gwen Mayer, Linda T. Minton, Susie Monday, Jeannie Moore, Rachel Parris, Judy Perez, Yvonne Porcella, Wen Redmond, Karen Rips, Carolyn Ryan, Cynthia St. Charles, Julie Schlueter, Teresa Shippy, Gayle Simpson, Sarah Ann Smith, Terry Waldron, Laura Cater-Woods and Kathy York. So much fun to see how each of us interpreted the theme! My piece, Lost Cavern has been on my mind for a few years and I have always wanted to do a piece with stalactites and stalagmites under water. It was not until this year, that I finally delved into trying to accomplish this. The backdrop is a painted raw silk background covered with heat distressed lutradur and interfacing. I continued the jagged formations with wool roving and dyed cheesecloth mixed with lace and other bits of silk habotai. It is fused with Mistyfuse and quilted with Superior trilobal polyester thread and Aurifil 40 wt cotton machine quilting and embroidery thread. The divers are women who commemorate our pioneeer sister souls!

Below is a photo of Dinner at Eight Artists  meeting at Spencers on Friday night at of course, 8 o'clock. We had a wonderful time, meeting one another, exchanging cards, signing our new book, The Space Between and talking about next year's theme! As is traditional, we raised a toast to Strong Women. May we know them. May we raise them. May we be them! Then, we were off and being silly, playing with spoons. So much fun. Darn, I wish I had taken pictures of us with spoons but I suppose I was having too much fun. You can see more photos at http://dinnerateightartists.blogspot.com/ . Blessed to be a part of this awesome group of women! Truly one of the highlights of festival!


Left to right, Jamie Fingal, Terry Grant, Frances Holliday Alford, Gerrie Congdon, Susan Brubaker Knapp, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Barb Forrister and Susan King