Every year Studio Art Quilt Associates has a benefit auction, with 12" square quilts donated. This year's auction begins September 14. While I did not make a little quilt to donate, I took a break to look over the 380+ quilts. To spark one's interest even further, the suggestion is to pick eight quilts to curate as your "Dream Collection," then they post the collections. Sure, that might be fun.
It turns out that it was not only fun, but it made me focus. What grabbed my attention? If I were to buy one, what would it be like? If I were to pick eight, could I? Would they come together as one vision? What would I call the collection? I began looking more closely. Here's how it rolled:
1. Color seemed the obvious starting point. Color is a strong statement. Did the colors feel harmonious? Were they colors I personally liked? If not, did the quilt work anyway?
2. The hand. I wanted to see the hand. When I can tell that a human made it and not a machine, I find it livelier and fresher. While I appreciate the precision and craft that some bring to their works, I like the asymmetry, the irregular, and hand stitching, painting, or hand-dyeing appeals to me as well.
3. Composition. I looked for pleasing arrangements, not as simple as one color on a field, but not as complex as a photographic image or collage of various things. Scale. Balance.
What was I looking for? Abstract forms, integrated colors, hand-stitched. Ultimately I decided I wanted a window, a place where I could enter and imagine, look through to a new view.
SAQA posted my "Dream Collection" along with several others here (there were two pages of them when I last checked; my choices were on page two, fifth thirteenth down). At the link, when you scroll, you can hover over each to see the titles and artists and see the quilts larger and better.
But here is a screenshot and list of my choices to start. The (numbers) are the sections in which the quilts will be offered.
Top: (L to R) Jette Clover - Below the Surface (1); Judith Content - Eddy (3); Paula C Dean - Growth (1); Ali George - Nod to Gravitation (2)
Bottom: (L to R) Greta F. Hildebrand - Winter Gymnasium #1: Hydrangea (2); Judy Langille - How the lights gets in III (3); Wen Redmond - For Now (3); Daphne Taylor - Still-life #17 (3)
You could make a Dream Collection yourself! It's an interesting learning experience. Here's the link for the Dream Collections.
SAQA's FAQs are here. To actually bid, you don't have to be a member, but you do need to create an account with Handbid. You put in your name and credit card to get ready. When the bidding begins, once you click BUY, it goes in your cart and you can't unbuy! Then they let you know if you won.
The first week, Sept 14-17, you can buy any quilt for $1000. Second week, Sept 18-24 (first grouping) Monday: $750 / Tuesday $550 / Wednesday $450 / Thursday $350 / Friday $150 / Saturday $100 / Sunday $100. Third week, Sept 25-Oct 1, is the second group same pricing per day, Fourth week, Oct 2-Oct 8, is the third group, same pricing per day, and it ends on October 8. Groupings in no way denote the quality, they seem to be random.
View all SAQA Benefit Auction quilts.
Aside from the lovely quilts, why support SAQA you ask? For me, membership has been really helpful. The calls for entry are themed, which I have learned to use as sparks rather than hindrances, and they book really good museums for the global exhibitions. If you are juried into a global show you only pay postage to send your quilt to one central place, there is a coordinator who deals with shipping while it is traveling (which it does for three years) and SAQA pays postage back to you if it does not sell. If you are in a global show you also get a free catalogue. You have to be a member to enter these shows, and there is an entry fee, but if you are juried in, they really make it worthwhile.
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