Hollis Chatelain - Textile Artist

Many people ask me what I am working on, where my work is being exhibited and how I am spending my time. This is a new addition to the website that will be updated monthly with the latest things that are happening in my life.

September is over already. I had started the newsletter for September but never quite got it sent out so I’ve combined September and October together.

This has been a crazy time. Two of our kids moved to Africa the first week in September. Even though they are on the same continent, they won’t be wandering over to each other’s houses for a chat. There are 3,200 miles between them. Africa is big!!

Our youngest is in college so we are officially empty nesters again. At least for now.

Summer is winding down and we are in hurricane season in North Carolina. We got between 15-20 inches of rain in August and September. Quite different than the drought of last year.

October means that the International Quilt Festival in Houston is quickly approaching! I have been applying to this judged show for fifteen years and LOVE going to it! There are the best quilts, vendors, and classes all in one huge and wonderful place. You can’t get better than that!!

This year I chose not to apply to the show. Since I am creating the artwork for the “Imagine Hope” exhibit, my art is often traveling and unavailable. But it is tough to not be a part of all of those beautiful quilts for the first time in fifteen years, so Superior Threads will hang “Exodus” in their booth #608. Please stop by to see it and say hello to Heather and Bob for me!

One of the major problems quilters face is too much sitting. We also tend to have repetitive motion injuries. Well, if you are going to Houston for the IQF show, I recommend taking a one hour class from Randy Cook on stretching for quilters. This is a class designed specifically for quilters with simple exercises that will help you feel better and you can even go in your street clothes! I have taken a number of classes from Randy and find him to be the BEST exercise instructor I have ever met. What I would really like is to have a DVD from him so I can follow his routines every day!

If you are interested in feeling better, Randy will be teaching “Stretching for Quilters”:

Ami Simms will be hosting a booth (#’s 5726, 5728, and 5730) in Houston for the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative to raise awareness and funds. The money made from these sales will be donated to research for Alzheimer’s disease. One of my quilts will be for sale and I will also be playing Vanna White Thursday morning from 10:00 – 11:00. Stop by to say hello and support this wonderful cause!! For more information, click here .

After finishing the rainforest part of my environmental triptych, I’ve decided to hold off on the triptych idea. The further along I got in this piece, the more I realized I like Baobab Forest alone. So I have decided to back up.

I am now quilting the piece that will be donated to the art initiative called "Through Her Eyes". This is a project that benefits women in war torn countries through Women for Women International. This new piece will be for sale with 50% of the retail price going to the organization. If you are interested in having more information about this piece, please email me.

Also click here to see “Storm Clouds” which is part of my Elements series.

“Figuratively Speaking” will continue to run through October 5th, 2008 at the Visions Art Quilt Gallery in San Diego, California. "Exodus" will be in this exhibit. Click here for more information.

"Exodus" will then be hanging in the Superior Threads booth #608 at the IQA show in Houston from October 29th – November 1st, 2008.

The exhibit “Creative Force: Masters”, curated by Martha Sielman, will be shown at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in October 2008. It will then travel to Chicago and California. The works of forty artists from the book "Masters: Art Quilts" will be shown in this exhibit. I will be represented by “Blue Men” .

The book "Masters: Art Quilts" is now available. Forty artists were selected worldwide and each one is featured in an 8 page mini-retrospective, showing approximately 10 artworks from each person.
The book is available on the SAQA website and on Amazon.com .

In September I taught a three day dye-painting/quilting workshop at the Beach Cities Quilters Guild in San Juan Capistrano, California. It was a delightful group and we had a wonderful time.

I also taught Color Challenge I with my ongoing group (year # 5) in Waterville Valley in New Hampshire. The air was crisp, the trees were already turning and it was beautiful. But we were working so hard that we didn’t really have much of a chance to take long walks in the nature! It was a great retreat and was held in a lovely inn with the BEST food I have had at any workshop ever!

In October I will travel to Berkeley, CA to teach a five-day quilting workshop. This is my seventh year of going to this same group and we have become quite close so I am excited to see them all again.

Then on to Houston October 27th – November 2nd to teach Marketing, Dye-Painting, and Quilting Design. The “Following Your Passion, Marketing your Strengths” 3-hour marketing seminar is Monday evening (Oct. 27th) and I believe there are still a few more openings. To register, click here .

I will also be presenting my new lecture, “The Emotion of Color” Thursday October 30th from 4:00 – 5:00. To register, click here .

Please check out my new website www.imagine-hope.com . Within the next couple of months we will be adding much more detail about my exhibit “Imagine Hope”. This exhibit will have textile pieces speaking about worldwide issues and black & white photographs from prominent photographers dealing with the same subjects.

We have giclee prints of “Hope For Our World” and "The Gift", the two winning quilts in Houston in 2007. There are also prints available of “The Grandfather”, “Sahel”, “Ecuadorian Girls”, “Captured”, “Precious Water”, “Fatima’s Son”, “School: It’s Never Too Late to Learn”, “Nature’s Gift”, “Blue Men”, “Burkinabe Mother” and “Untold Secrets", and they are all beautiful. Click here to check out all the prints and to learn more about giclee prints.

All of the threads that I designed for Superior Threads are for sale on the website click here . Living Colors and Nature Colors are sold in packs of 25 because I have found that quilters use threads in a more unique and exciting way when they have the opportunity to “audition” a number of different colors (just like we do with fabrics) before making their final choices.