PNW Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum: Fabric Poems
Name:
PNW Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum: Fabric Poems
Date:
June 27, 2018 - September 30, 2018
Event Description:
Before coming to America I had taught piano, and when I arrived here in 1977 I had intended to deepen my studies in music. However my husband is a composer of classical music, and when I saw the commitment of his students and colleagues, I began to realize that I was not really a musician. Thus began the painful process of searching for my true field. As a child I had enjoyed working with my hands, so I tried many different things, but only quilting seemed natural to me. In 1981 I decided to only do quilting, and in thirty seven years since then I have never thought of giving it up. Every day I derive happiness from thinking about my quilts and working with them.
In 2000 I established the "New Zephyrs" Quilt Group, an association of student-members who share my love of quilting and my dedication to it. For fourteen years we have held annual exhibitions in Kyoto and Tokyo, and special exhibitions in Yamagata, Matsumoto, and Fukuoka. Although I have had solo exhibitions at the Museums at Stony Brook, NY; the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY; the International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Lincoln, NE; as well as at the International Forum in Tokyo; we are delighted to have this exhibition at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Art Museum as the first overseas show for the New Zephyrs Quilt Group. The quilts in this exhibition were selected from work done over many years and thus comprise a kind of retrospective show.
Emiko Toda Loeb
I would like to explain briefly about the unique New Zephyrs Quilt Group and its history. In 2000 I was one of seventeen quilters who joined a group founded by Emiko-sensei. All of us had taken workshops of hers and had seen exhibitions of her work. The group did not have a name until Emiko's husband suggested the name that we have used ever since. Her plan of instruction is based on six full-day classes each year. The first two are lectures concerning design, concentrating on a particular theme or pattern that was decided for that year. The remaining four sessions are master classes in which Emiko offers suggestions to each student on a one-to-one basis, with other students observing and benefitting from her comments. Each student brings her own design, so that even with a common theme the quilts in the annual exhibitions are highly varied.
In 2000 I established the "New Zephyrs" Quilt Group, an association of student-members who share my love of quilting and my dedication to it. For fourteen years we have held annual exhibitions in Kyoto and Tokyo, and special exhibitions in Yamagata, Matsumoto, and Fukuoka. Although I have had solo exhibitions at the Museums at Stony Brook, NY; the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY; the International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Lincoln, NE; as well as at the International Forum in Tokyo; we are delighted to have this exhibition at the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Art Museum as the first overseas show for the New Zephyrs Quilt Group. The quilts in this exhibition were selected from work done over many years and thus comprise a kind of retrospective show.
Emiko Toda Loeb
I would like to explain briefly about the unique New Zephyrs Quilt Group and its history. In 2000 I was one of seventeen quilters who joined a group founded by Emiko-sensei. All of us had taken workshops of hers and had seen exhibitions of her work. The group did not have a name until Emiko's husband suggested the name that we have used ever since. Her plan of instruction is based on six full-day classes each year. The first two are lectures concerning design, concentrating on a particular theme or pattern that was decided for that year. The remaining four sessions are master classes in which Emiko offers suggestions to each student on a one-to-one basis, with other students observing and benefitting from her comments. Each student brings her own design, so that even with a common theme the quilts in the annual exhibitions are highly varied.