The Thread: News From the Q-niverse

Austin Fashion Week Showcases Indie Talent

What do you get when you add fabric, thread, ingenuity and creativity to an already creative southern city? You get Austin Fashion Week, which has earned a place as the 42nd most influential global fashion capital. (And the only one from Texas!) It showcases independent designers from all over the world, including established names as well as emerging regional talent.

The sixth annual AFW took place in late April, and was sponsored by a number of companies, including BERNINA.  Activities included appearances by six designers from the hit television show, Project Runway, specifically Jeffrey Sebelia, Michelle Lesniak, Daniel Esquivel, Mychael Knight, Korto Momolu and Melissa Fleis.

Winners of various awards were also highlighted, including the inaugural class of the Austin Fashion Fund, a fashion incubator program designed to help experienced and emerging small-house Austin designers launch their own labels. The “emerging” designers were Lindsey Creel of M.E. Shirley, Mallory Curlee of CurleeBikini and Adrienne Yunger. They each received a hefty prize package including  photography, design and administrative services and a BERNINA B 560.

Additionally, BERNINA also showcased a number of new models during exhibits that accompanied the fashion-focused week, including the top-of-the line B 880.  Company reps also demonstrated PaintWork, a DesignWorks Software Suite application that allows sewists to draw directly on fabrics. AFW visitors had an opportunity to make a bracelet using the various BERNINA machines and DesignWorks software. 

Scenes from the recent Austin Fashion week

New Exhibits, New Scholar for Texas Quilt Museum

Located in two distinctive buildings in the Historic District of LaGrange, Texas,  the Texas Quilt Museum celebrates the art and beauty of quilting. And now it celebrates the scholarship of the quilt world, too. Earlier this spring, the museum admitted its very first Bybee Scholar, Teresa Duryea Wong, who is researching contemporary Japanese quilting for an upcoming book as well as her master’s thesis at Rice University.

The scholar distinction is part of the Faith P. and Charles L. Bybee Foundation, which recognizes research and educational projects in the arts.  As part of being a Bybee Scholar, Teresa examined books and magazines–some out of print–in the museum’s library, and  got up-close looks at four quilts by the late Yukiko Hirano, a landmark quilter on the Japanese scene. Teresa will return for several visits to continue her studies, which will eventually go into her thesis, and into her book, Contemporary Japanese Quilters and the Quilters Who Make Them due for release in late 2014 or early 2015 from Schiffer Publishing.

Teresa Duryea Wong, the Texas Quilt Museum’s first Bybee Scholar,  examines a quilt by the late Yukiko Hirano. Photo by Rhianna Griffin.

butterflies and more

In other news, now through June 29, the museum is hosting three special exhibits:

Melanie Marr's Beautiful Morning, part of a current exhibit at the Texas Quilt Museum.

* Butterflies and Their Beautiful Kin–This first juried exhibition mounted by the museum includes 38 quilts that advance the message of conservation, and help celebrate the completion of a Grandmother’s Flower Garden, a meditative space next to the museum populated by butterflies.

* An Invitational Flutter of of Butterfly Art Quilts–This complementary invitational exhibit features 17 art quilts showcasing butterflies. Selected pieces from this exhibit, and the juried Butterflies and Their Beautiful Kin will be displayed later this year at the National Butterfly Center and may tour other venues around the country.

* Antique Quilts from the Gundersheimer Collection--Eight quilts from the Karen and Werner Gundersheimer collection celebrate the couples’ love of folk art. Pieces include an Amish Shadow and Sunshine, a triple Irish Chain and a 19th century crazy quilt.  In addition to enjoying folk art and quilts, Karen Gundersheimer wrote and/or illustrated more than 30 children’s books and her husband, Werner was the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

If you miss these three exhibits, new ones will open July 3. Got to www.texasquiltmuseum.org for more information.

GenQ Staffers In The Classroom

Not only do we work hard providing great content for Generation Q Magazine, but sometimes we even get to teach! Scott and Teri are going to be out & about in the q-niverse teaching at these upcoming events:

* Scott will be at Quilter’s Affair , July 7 – 11, 2014. (Word has it his classes are filling up fast!)
* Teri will be at Minnesota Quilts, June 12 – 14, 2014; and at Steve’s Sew & Vac on Aug. 16. Oh, and at Road to California in early 2015!