Participation to Camouflage quilt show

Exhibits, improv process

“Spot the dot”, my last quilt finish, has been selected to be part of “Camouflage”. Juried by Lorraine Roy, it’s an exhibition celebrating the wonder of wildlife and the artistry of concealment, inspired by a theme submitted by SAQA Member Leilani Purvis.

 “Spot the dot” will be on display, at the International Quilt Festival, Houston Texas, since October 31, 2024. Additional venues are Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona (July 19th – September 28, 2025); Detroit Zoo, Royal Oak, Michigan (November 2025 – February 2026); exhibition will travel through December 2027.

I now have five works travelling with SAQA shows. Thanks to SAQA international nonprofit organisation, whose mission is to promote art quilts, for the organisation of many initiatives and opportunities.

This is the story of “Spot the dot”.

How would you behave, if you had a mixed identity, such as the one of a black and white dot (pardon, a black and white button) appearing in this quilt?

Would you act like the black dots, who are wandering around, exploring opportunities, searching for a gate to break free? Or you’d rather look for safety, hiding within the crowd, pressed inside a box, among the other buttons that look quite similar you?

Ok, let’s take another point of view. Let’s join the observer, who can easily spot the dot. Human brain is wired to connect the dots and to go straight to the point. So… what’s the point of treasure hunt? To find ‘em all! Until the last point.

Play the game and search for a “point”!

When creatives connect

collaborations, techniques

I’ve had the special opportunity to be in contact with Lynn Woll, founder of Create Whimsy, for an interview.

She allowed me to talk about all the creative media I use. This arrived in the very right moment: her questions helped me to clarify my thoughts of these days. For example, Lynn asked me:

“You are a full-time engineer and have a variety of interests outside of work. How do you keep all the balls in the air?”

When I read this question, I started to laugh and weep at the same time… it looked as if the question hit the nail.

During the current year, indeed, my work-life balance has changed, such that I could not schedule my free time as easily as before.

Changes of life can surprise you with unexpected twists, which may, some days, overcome your coping skills. Complex and super busy periods strongly force your capability to adapt. The interesting thing is that stretching skills acts on the brain in a very powerful way. Fertile land is prepared for future creations, that will become interpretation for the plenty of things that you have learnt, while passing across difficulties.

Just in the days of Lynn’s contact, I was starting a new photography stream, which was acting as a valuable strategy to cope with stress: it made me feel much better. It’s impossible to have a photo UFO, because one photo is taken in one second! I took the habit of setting collected seeds and textile supplies in a way that gave me visual emotions. Then, the photo-finish of the day was made!

I have used different creative media depending on the period of my life and the work-life balance. I decide which medium I want to work on, based on the amount of time that I have: quilting is for long projects, drawing is for average spare time; photography is available even if I have a few-minutes-only break.

In the picture below, a set of natural treasures collected during a walk, part of my creative supplies.

I invite you to read the interview on createwhimsy/spotlight-paola-machetta and to check also other featured makers: I’ve found plenty of inspiration on Create Whimsy. Thanks Lynn!

Little hiding dot

Exhibits, techniques

A few weeks ago, I told myself: “I want to build something new”. I was in a park, I collected seeds from the trees. Autumn had started, it was the period when trees created ball shaped seed collections.

I approached the start of a new season, together with small things. Such as, shapes from fabric (that I’ve used in my quilts) and shapes from Nature. I started a new photo series, based on small treasures from nature and fabric scraps from quilts.

If I connect the dots of what happened in the last months, I find that my last quilt finish was made with dotted fabrics, and my first photo-composition playtime was made with that same dotted fabric and round seeds.

“Spot the dot” is the title of my last quilt finish, where I played with dots and their travelling around. It will be on display soon, at the International Quilt Festival, Houston Texas: October 31 – November 3, 2024. It has been selected to be part of the SAQA show “Camouflage”, juried by Lorraine Roy: an exhibition celebrating the wonder of wildlife and the artistry of concealment, inspired by a theme submitted by SAQA Member Leilani Purvis.

I’ve just received the catalogue of the SAQA show “Camouflage”.

In a future article, I will tell the story of this quilt.

Quilts connect with drawing

collaborations, Exhibits

My work “Open air” will be part of the “SAQA Global Exhibition Abstraction: Textural Elements”, opening in a few days at Max Berk Textile Collection, Palatinate Museum, Heidelberg, Germany, on September 15, 2024.
I described its story in an earlier blog post, at this link.

“Open air” is one of my quilts more connected with drawing, since it is mainly based on the use of line.

What is drawing?

Joe Cunningham said to me (during a mentoring session with him, which I had the pleasure to attend): “Drawing is a direct connection to the mind”.

My first drawings, at primary school, included roses from the home garden of my class mate Sara. Last month I was in Oslo, in Norway, and I visited Vigeland park. The smell of roses I found there made me wish to draw roses again, as in the innocence of childhood.

I once displayed a drawing gallery “en plein air”, thanks to the arrangement of my friends Serena and Andrea, who made a concert in a natural reserve, in the Cona island, near river Isonzo. During that evening, they played, among their own music, also the song by their friend Ares Movio, which talks about childhood innocence too. You can hear it in the following video.

I had the honor to illustrate Andrea and Serena’s CD “Laila”: it was a wonderful joint creativity experience, one of my best memories related to drawing.

I recently started drawing again.
Rivers, obviously.

The sea has many colors

Exhibits

I had the pleasure to be interviewed by Diane Howell, editor of the SAQA Journal, who featured my quilt, Night Lights, in the Inspired column in the latest issue of the SAQA Journal magazine. Her questions were an occasion, for me, to think of the variety I can find at the seaside. Indeed, she asked about both my works Sealights and Night Lights, inspired by the reflection of the light on the surface of the sea, respectively in a Summer day and in the Winter evening.

I am aware that the colors of the sea can be many more than those. I daily choose sunset time, or sunrise time, or a cloudy moment, or an almost rainy hour, and all the possible weather types, as a good reason to visit the seaside space in my town. I check the clarity of the horizon line, the size of the waves, the reflection games.

If you are a SAQA member, you can find the full article in SAQA Journal, Volume 34, Issue 2, page 39. Here below, an excerpt of the article page.

SAQA is a very lively community: if you’re not familiar with them, you may be surprised by how many initiatives are hosted by SAQA. In the meanwhile I was preparing this post, I also had another beautiful piece of news. I’m honored to have been informed that my work “River Gone Green” was selected by jurors Ildiko Polyak, Maya Chaimovich and Susan Vogel for the @saqaart Europe and Middle East juried exhibition “WIDE HORIZONS IX”.
In the picture below, a moment when “River Gone Green” was in the starting phase, on the design wall. If you wish to see it, Wide Horizons IX will debut at European Patchwork Meeting (EPM) in Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, France, from 12th to 15th of September 2024.

QuiltCon and the effects of visual perception

Exhibits, improv process

My preparation for the visit in the US to QuiltCon 2024 started four months in advance. In these days, Fabia Delise mentioned the retrospective exhibition dedicated to the abstract expressionist Mark Rothko hosted by the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Perfect timing! I decided that my connecting flight had to pass through Paris, and I booked the tickets for that gallery.

It was a very strong experience. The large paintings by Rothko game me the idea of wide horizons, of the blocking of walls, of the wish to dive in, of the feeling to fly above… The luminosity of space was recognized very well by my visual perception system. This show made me wish to spend more time outdoor or, as paper engineer Annalisa Metus recently said, of being en plein air.

I spent the rest of my day in Paris walking in the zone of La Défense in Paris, where I found the monument “Iris” by Raymond Moretti, among skyscrapers illuminated in the night.

When I arrived to my destination, at QuiltCon, one of the first quiltmakers that I met was Scott Culley. His quilt Shadow won first prize in the Piecing category: congratulations Scott! Only at a certain distance, the composition of a face can be recognized. He made other works based on visual perception effects, such as the earlier quilt Mask-3.

A few days before going to QuiltCon, I read the impressive story of the work Reconceived by Jennifer Candon, and how she is aware of visual perception factors, while choosing colorful zones and areas for the eyes to rest, in her quilts. I commented her: “I bet on an award”. Indeed her work won the first prize in the Improv category.

Here you can see how big is the work of Jennifer, at right; in the center, still in the Improv category, was hanging my quilt “Night Lights” juried in the show.

Night Lights is intended as an abstract work, even if it is based on a real experience feeling. I use to walk by the sea in whatever hour of the day. Late afternoon hour in Winter is enough to find an extreme condition: a black sky above a black horizon of water. The tip of the pier is one of my favorite places, where only natural illumination remains, the last streetlamp and its wavy reflections left behind.

I was happy to find in the show the work Iridescence by Julie Reuben , which has been juried also in the Abstraction: Textural Elements (SAQA Global Exhibition) together with my quilt Open air. Her handwork quilting creates color play in a very interesting zone: the limit of visibility.

QuiltCon in depth

activism, Exhibits, joining events

“It takes courage to use, for the first time, an overseas flight”, recognized Irene Roderick @hixsonir, during the breakfast where she kindly invited me, in Raleigh (US), together with other quilters, in a nicely informal eat-together occasion. I was so happy to meet her in person, after the having attended her workshops only from remote. During that discussion, I was explaining that visiting US has not been in my plans ever: I was afraid to go, from my 7.500 miles distant hometown in Italy.

I was convinced to take the plane by the opportunity of attending the QuiltCon 2024 opening lecture by @davidowenhastings and Teresa Duryea Wong @third_floor_quilts who celebrated 20 modern quilts from around the world. Argentina, Guatemala, New Zealand, Korea, Switzerland, France and Italy were represented: you can find the featured quiltmakers on David’s web site here. I am so honored to have been part of the mentioned quilters during this session, attending in presence together with Cecilia Koppmann @ceciliakoppmann, and in the good company of the other mentioned Italian @fabiadelise, whose work I admire so much. I discovered, among others, deeply impressive Korean artists, who give meaning to their quilts with profound care and detail, such as Sung Hye Byun @konnimi who celebrates hometown architectures in a fascinating way, a subject that I love too.

I am grateful to David for having been a “good influence”, inspiring me to visit QuiltCon, and I’m especially happy that he has mentioned that part of me who is an “activist”. My featured work Heat Map is one of my quilts that tell stories of civil action, as I explained on my blog here. I have made other works combined with civil initiatives, such as the one for the petition to save the last savage river in Europe Tagliamento.

“Let’s transform passion into call for action” is a feeling which I shared with Lorraine Woodruff-Long @quiltinginthefog, who I had the pleasure to talk with. How to select striking messages? I started to wonder if my messages remain too hidden, when confined to the artist statements. For her messages, on the contrary, she uses phrases and images so powerful that I could not smile at the photo taken aside her quilt “The Number of Holes”, due to the severity of the addressed subject, but sure I was smiling and happy during our selfie together! Thanks Lorrain for the time spent talking of experiences we both have had, in connecting art and science dissemination, as she did for the Art x Climate Project at the US Global Change Research Program (I’m so proud that quilts can help raising awareness on such topics, as Lorrain’s quilt powerfully did) and I did 20 years ago for the science communication project “Nanoworld” (you can find it mentioned in my bio). I didn’t expect that the visit to QuiltCon could bring to surface my deep past!

A lot of red

Exhibits

In the latest issue of Art Quilt Quarterly (Issue No. 33), available through the SAQA website at this link, you can find a feature article by Patty Kennedy-Zafred about the SAQA Global Exhibition, Color in Context: RED. My work “Heat map” was included. I’ve described the meaning of “heat map” in an earlier post here.

This article allowed me to discover more about the other works, part of the show, including impactful three-dimensional fiber art. A monochromatic exhibit gets strong in itself!

The Color in Context: RED exhibition, with works selected by juror Judy Kirpich, opens on November 2nd at the prestigious International Quilt Festival, at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston Texas. I hope you will visit the International Quilt Festival, the largest annual quilt show in the U.S., which regularly attracts 55,000 people from over 35 countries all around the world! I will not be there, but I’m honored to be part of the show. “Heat map” is my second quilt travelling with a SAQA global exhibition. The other one is “Grasshopper path”, part of Haven SAQA global exhibition (heading to the AQS QuiltWeek events in 2024), a yellow quilt shown here below. It seems I have a soft spot for monochromatic textures…

From Australia to Canada

collaborations, joining events

I had the wonderful experience of being interviewed by @janekellyquilts for the “Meet the Makers” section of Make Modern Quilt Magazine. Her questions gave me the opportunity to think about my quilting journey, since its start, to the possible ideas for my future quilts.

I’m honored to find my story published in the now available issue 54, in a beautiful four-pages layout. I’m in good company of many other brilliant quilters, such as Birgitta Jadenfelt, who had her bluebells pattern published in the same issue.

Since the magazine is fully digital, it can immediately reach distant locations. Such as Canada, where Linda McLaren had the kind idea of bringing my mini quilt “Giraffe’s rock” to the London Modern Quilt Guild Canada Show, as an example of the MQG Make a Mini Make a Friend swap. The article featuring me, from the just released Make Modern issue created in Australia, was pinned to it by Linda, who had been paired with me in the swap. Connections within the quilting community run quick!

The quilt with a secret code

improv process

The third and last episode of the series “The secret lives of quilts” of this Summer is out on Patchworkvictim blog, on its YouTube channel, and here above! This episode tells the story of the quilt “Open air”.

I made “Open air” at the end of the pandemic period. It was started in one of the workshops with Irene Roderick, which I had the opportunity to attend in the on-line mode. This quilt expresses the feelings you can have when you get out of your home, after a long time spent in the inside. In that moment, the air outside feels so fresh, the light so bright, that it almost surprises your eyes for the sudden change of luminosity. I tried to express this in my work, thanks to the large amount of white fabric used, and I always feel good still now when I look at “Open air”.

For this quilt I also used printed fabric with text. This is a way of working that I adopted after having met the quilter Linda McLaren: it was Linda who proposed me to try fabric with text in a previous work and I continued also in this case. I placed words spread around in the texture. Sometimes these words compose a sort of a message; in some other positions they are put casually. So, we may say that this work is a quilt with a “secret code”.