"Lake House" Cindy Grisdela 2011

I finished “Lake House” just in time to donate to the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) annual online auction. The auction is a major fundraiser for the group, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting quilts as art. All of the donated quilts are posted on the SAQA website until the auction starts. There are some wonderful pieces there!

The auction begins Monday, September 12, 2011 at 2 PM Eastern time. Each piece is 12″ x 12″ or One Foot Square. It’s a reverse auction, so the price starts out at $750 for each quilt on the first day, then drops each day at 2 PM to the next price point–$550, $350, $250, $150 and $75. There will be three sections to the auction and I think my piece will be in the third section.

New this year are several curated “dream collections” put together by SAQA members. These are groups of nine pieces chosen around a particular theme to illustrate how well these pieces look in groupings. I’m gratified to see that my piece appears in several of those collections!

I’m having fun creating these contemporary improvisational pieces exploring color and line using only solid fabrics. Each one is unique. Once the design is created, then I add texture and interest with rich machine stitching. If you right-click on the image you can see the square shapes in the horizontal “house” section, the swirls for clouds or wind at the top and the wavy lines and bubbles for the water section. I spent a lot of time at the lake when I was growing up in Florida, and this is my tribute to those wonderful memories.

Take a few minutes to stop by the SAQA website and see all of these great pieces of art–maybe one or more will speak to you!

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the MPAArtfest on October 2 and the Great Falls Studios Studio Tour on October 15 and 16! I’m going to be busy the next two months getting new work ready to show you!.