Local Artist's Quilt To Travel The World

Feb 28, 2013

One of Beth Abbott's goals this year was to enter a work in an international juried show. Beth, a local fibre artist based out of Godfrey, entered her quilt titled "Spirit Rising", in an international juried quilt show, “Metaphors on Aging”, which was sponsored by the US-based Studio Art Quilt Association.

Not only was Beth able to check that goal off her list, but she was surprised and very excited to find out recently that her quilt was one of 38, out of a total of 160 quilts from all over the world, that were accepted into the show.

“I really didn't think there was any hope of my piece getting into the show,” Beth said.

The show's sole juror, Pamela Allen, disagreed. In the email that she sent to Beth notifying her of her acceptance, Allen mentioned not only the piece's excellent composition and color, but also “the sincere intent of the artist expressed in a creative way; evidence of going beyond the obvious into personal expression.”

The piece, which measures 28 x 36 inches and depicts a bright hot air balloon floating above a somber-colored, undulating landscape, comes from a very personal place indeed. The inspiration for it came to Beth when she was caring for her dying father in Windsor, Ont. this past summer. She said the idea came to her when she was zentangling one night by her father's bedside. Zentangling, Beth explained is a “controlled form of doodling, a kind of yoga for the brain where you fill spaces with pattern,” a technique she learned at the Garden Time Quilt Shop in Kingston.

She said the balloon represents the spirit of her father, who passed away on July 18, 2012, three days after his 98th birthday. In the artist's statement that she submitted along with the piece, she described the balloon image as “the spirit of my Dad, released from the limitations of age and soaring over the now colourless landscape where the earth is lifeless but his spirit is alive with light.”

The quilt, which was constructed with cotton batik prints in a range of shades, incorporates a free cut landscape and was all machine stitched.

The show will travel first to Birmingham, England for the UK Festival of Quilts, August 8-11. From there it will travel to the International Quilt Convention at the Emperor's Palace in Johannesburg, South Africa for September 6-8, with future showings in the US, and hopefully Canada as well. Beth was pleased that of the 38 quilts chosen for the show at least five were from quilters from Eastern Ontario, which sparked her to quip, “The fibre arts are definitely alive and well in Eastern Ontario.”