Members of the Kenai Peninsula Quilting Guild and the public alike are in for a quirky quilting show this week.
Artist Susan Else, based in California, will present to the guild Off the Wall: Quilting in Three Dimensions at 7 p.m. Friday at Christ Lutheran Church in Soldotna. While the lecture is for members of the guild and guild members traveling from other parts of the state, the trunk show that will sample Else’s work is free and open to the public. Kathleen Barkley, education chair for the local guild, said the group tries to promote the joys of quilting within the community at large.
“We want to make it open to everyone so that people can come,” Barkley said. “We want to promote and encourage the art of quilt making by developing appreciation of fine quilts, sponsoring and conducting programs and services in the design and technique of quilt making.”
Else combines traditional quilting with solid sculpture work and other artistic elements, such as light and sound, according to her website. She uses quilt material to cover forms made of things like of foam or wire, which sometimes include motion elements as well.
“We’re very excited, because we learn new techniques,” Barkley said of the lecture.
The journey to get Else to Alaska began when a guild member took a class from her, Barkley said. Women from as far as Anchorage and Seward are coming to the lecture, she said.
It is not unusual for the guild to bring presenters from across the country, Barkley said. Often, the group will reach out to other quilting guilds within the state to see if they would like to book the same person for the same time period, which helps the groups share resources, she said.
“We feel very blessed (and) grateful that these instructors are willing to come to Alaska,” Barkley said. “And of course they want to come in the summer months.”
Members of the local guild will get to experiment with example dioramas, color, 3-D landscapes and more techniques to “enhance the depth of a piece,” Barkley said.
Reach Megan Pacer at megan.pacer@peninsulaclarion.com.
