I am shocked when I find out people do not know who Hollis Chatelain is.  To me she is a rock star.  But, really, she is a quilter.  She is an artistic quilter, an award winning quilter, and she is known internationally.    When people see her quilts, they gasp.  They stare in wonder, trying to figure out how on earth she does what she does and where she gets her ideas.  She is my hero, and when I grow up, I want to be just like her.  Or… I want to have her artistic quilting talent in my next life.

So, the 2 quilting guilds that I belong to (Blue Valley Quilters Guild in Olathe, KS and Mo-Kan Machine Quilters Guild in Overland Park, KS) are co-hosting Hollis the first week of September; just 2 weeks away.  I feel so fortunate to be able to meet Hollis in person and to see her quilts in person.  I get to go to her morning lecture, “The Relationship Between Drawing and Quilting” on Tuesday morning, Sept. 4th.  Tuesday evening I get to attend her lecture, “The Emotion of Color.”  And, I get to take a couple of workshops with her as my teacher: all day Wednesday and Thursday (Sept. 5 & 6) I’ll be learning “Painting Images with Dyes” and on Friday, the 7th, I will learn about “Quilt Line as the Third Design Aspect.”

Take a look at her website at http://hollisart.com.  Eleven of her quilts have been part of a traveling exhibition called Imagine Hope.  You can find out more about that at http://imaginehopeworldwide.org/.  But, I think you will especially enjoy hearing her speak about her work and experiences at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3uBoH1xt-E.  And, if you ever get a chance to see the movie, “Stitched” with her in it, DO IT!!!  If you are a quilter, you will really enjoy it.  To buy the DVD, contact Jena Moreno at http://www.stitchedfilm.com/home.html for more information.

Hollis’ quilt won Viewer’s Choice Award at the International Quilt Festival’s show in Houston, Texas; November, 2011 – yes, that “picture” behind her is a quilt that she quilted on her domestic sewing machine!  If you ever get a chance to see this up close and personal, look for all the other little people within the stitching of the face.  I guarantee you will walk away from it with a new perspective.

*Note: pictures are from Hollis’ Facebook page and Imagine Hope’s Facebook Fan Page

FOR MORE INFORMATION on any of these events, please click on the “Contact Me” tab at the top of this blog page.