Communication is fundamental to human experience. It fuels our interactions, expresses our emotions, and builds relationships. We are shaped by all we have seen, done, and heard —whether it is from a revered source, the lyrics of a song, a gentle friend, or the whisper of gossip. These messages become part of us, influencing our thoughts and our art.

Artists are invited to explore the impact of verbal communication on our lives and our art. Think about what somebody told you. Did you listen? Should you have listened? How did those lasting words influence you or others? Whether these moments shared criticism, praise, or humor, there’s a story to be told — and this is your time to tell it.

Flicker Feather, Healing Words

Artist: Kelly Acton
24 x 34

Fresh from internal medicine training, my first Public Health Service post was on the Crow Indian reservation in Montana.

A favorite patient was Mr. Bad Bear, an elder medicine man with whom I shared a deep connection. One morning, he came not for care, but to deliver a message from a dream: “That situation you’re so worried about—you’ll be okay.” He placed a flicker feather in my hand, a sacred symbol among the Crow.

At the time, I was quietly carrying the weight of a malpractice suit—based on an administrative error outside my control, but still mine to bear. Weeks later, the case was resolved and my name cleared.

His gesture—driving 60 miles just to deliver reassurance and ease my burden—remains one of the most generous acts I've ever received. This quilt honors his wisdom and kindness.

Materials & techniques: Collage of woven and non-woven fabrics. Images and symbols created by photo printer and electronic cutter. Fused and machine quilted. Surface design with threads, beads, and Inktense pencil.

Tangled Words

Artist: Mary Arnold
34 x 38

As mom aged, she started losing her words, getting them mixed up and tangled. My sister and I talked about this and worried about it for Mom’s sake. Mom, as we patiently and sometimes not so patiently, waited for her to say what she needed to say, would tell us just wait until you get to my age and this happens to you.

Well, we are there now and we understand. It is happening to us and we remember what our mother told us.

Materials & techniques: Collage of hand dyed fabric and batiks. Raw edge applique and machine quilting.

A Quiet Place

Artist: Diane Born
24 x 33.5

The doctor beckoned her into an exam room. "I am sorry to tell you this and know you were not expecting what I have to say. The breast cancer you dealt with in 2001 has come back and requires treatment."

Her world crashed in that moment, then went into hyperdrive. CT scans were followed by PET scans, were followed by blood tests measuring tumor markers and on and on. How to stay positive, look to the future? Hold tight to husband and a few close friends.

Fabric art with a focus on nature has always soothed. Murmuring water, verdant plants and trees, vast skies are a promising beginning. Silk dyed a hazy blue. Trees dancing in brightly patterned fabrics. Muddy stream with lazily paddling ducks. Life would go on and so would she.

Materials & techniques: Collage of hand dyed, hand painted and commercial cottons and silks. Machine applique and quilting. 

The Secret Language of Trees

Artist: Nancy Bryant
42 x 32

While verbal communication is a primary form of human communication, I was inspired to explore the expansive natural world beyond spoken words. All forms of communication impact our thoughts and our art.

A secret language of trees lies beneath the earth as proven by research. Douglas fir and paper birch trees communicate with each other to exchange energy resources such as carbon, nitrogen, sugar and water. The underground fungal network(mycorrhizal fungi) connects trees' root systems. The fungal network also provides a pathway for trees to communicate threats such as droughts, parasites or diseases in a symbiotic relationship.

Materials & techniques: Raw edge applique of sun printed, hand dyed and commercial cottons. Hand and machine quilting. Surface design with inks and yarns.

When Trust Hits the Wall

Artist: Kristan Collins
57 x 22.5

This work explores the quiet betrayals hidden in language. Words like “I know you” and “trust me” are soft on the surface—echoes of love, friendship, care. But from the wrong mouth, they bruise. They twist. They become instruments of doubt, isolation, and control.

There is strength in recognition. When we name the harm, we reclaim our power. And in that reclaiming, we begin to heal.

Materials & techniques: Collage of commercial cotton, cheesecloth, organza and nettings. Surface design with India ink, gold peaf, acrylic paint and threads. Machine quilted.

Encrypted Message

Artist: Gerry Congdon
27 x 23

I recently had a solo exhibition of my quilts in a gallery in the independent living facility where I live. I was overwhelmed by the response. Many people said to me: "You are an artist!" They had not seen quilts like the ones I create and had expected to see traditional quilts.

I thought it would be fun to create a piece where the letters of the message became design elements and had to be deciphered. The idea of calling it an encrypted message seemed fitting.

Material & techniques: Fused piecing of Hand-dyed and painted silk. Machine quilted with variegated cotton thread.

Being Fourteen

Artist: Sherrie Culver
23 x 34

Have you ever seen a clique of young girls? How they navigate their world through news, gossip, happiness, despair, friends and not so good friends?

Some call it simple communication, but sometimes it is cruel gossip. It is the way of young people everywhere. Reputations are made and crushed with just a few words among friends.

Materials and techiques: Raw edge fused applique of commercial fabrics. Machine quilted. Cotton batting.

Keep Your Wits About You

Artist: Janet Darcher
59 x 36

During periods of chaos, I hear my father’s words, “KEEP YOUR WITS ABOUT YOU”.

Lately, I am reminded on a constant level to do just that, before acting or reacting to keep it together, no matter how fractured the system or situation is.

Dad grew up in abject poverty during the Dust Bowl in southeastern Colorado. He was the oldest son of nine children, with a father who was seldom there. He learned to do. And did it well. He taught me so much, and as a 71-year-old woman, I still use the skills I learned from him.

And Keep Your Wits About You has always been an important skill.

Materials & techniques: Machine piecing and quilting of hand dyed and rust dyed cotton fabric. Rusted fabric made with tools from my father's workshop

Somebody Told Me Dots and Stripes Don't Go Together

Artist: Terry Grant
38 x 22

Girls and women receive a lot of advice about how to look and what to wear. I think we are learning to ignore most of it in favor of wearing what makes us happy and not what somebody told us was acceptable!

Materials & techniques: Machine applique and quilting of commercial, hand painted and printed fabrics.

Ice Breaker

Artist: June Jaeger
51 x 43

Colder, colder and time slows. Now all of nature is at a standstill. Mother Nature does not carry a digital time piece. We wait, we look, all is still. The heart of the freeze is upon us, "Frozen in Time". My mother would tell us this in the fridged dark days of winter.

I challenged myself to a cold limited palette, thus giving me the opportunity to do a value study to capture 'Time' stopping, freezing the moment.

Materials & techniques: Raw edge fused applique and machine quilting of hand dyed and batik cotton fabrics. 

Trigger Words

Artist: Lisa Jenni
40 x 20

Our treasured constitutional democracy is being cut down in so many ways. A scientist friend told me of massive changes regarding our American English language. The current administration is pressing for the elimination of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion). So much of it is deeply worrisome, but especially the search via trigger words in databases, that has been radical and guided by AI.

Materials & techniques: Machine pieced and fused hand dyed cottons, silk organza, polyester sheer and tulle. Hand and machine quilted.

Ragged Edges

Artist: Ann Johnston
43 x 34

I always think about edges when I make quilts. "How neat are they, how straight, how well ironed?"

This is the voice of my grandmother in my head, still after all these years. She was a seamstress in Boston in her youth, making ladies ballgowns. After a lifetime pioneering across Canada with the new railroads and her own family, she taught me to make straight seams, neat zippers, bound buttonholes, finished edges, hand sewn hems, and detailed ironing.

My parents gave me a sewing machine for 8th grade graduation, so by the time I was in high school, I was making all my clothes, neatly.

Now, I think of her when I see threads hanging from the sewn edges on my quilts. She would laugh out loud at my current construction techniques and the wild fabrics I can produce with my hand dyeing.

Materials & techniques: Raw edge applique and machine quilting. Hand dyed cotton created by various methods - printing, painting, and resists. Surface design with assorted threads. Cotton batting.

Mindscapes: Descent 1

Artist: Carol Larson
41 x 35

Reading is the conversation between the author and the reader, where the author creates and shares and the reader interprets and learns.

Reading transports us to new places and transforms us into thoughtful and introspective people. It can be an escape and an oasis as well as a bridge to new ideas and possibilities. It brings our emotions into the process causing us to laugh or to cry.

Books contain the human narrative whether we are looking into a mirror or through a window. They are our story.

Materials & techniques: Repurposed quilt. Machine applique and quilting. Surface design by screen-printed acrylic paint.

The Sky Is Falling

Artist: Sheryl LeBlanc
24 x 21

This piece confronts the accelerating collapse of our collective reality. The fractured sky symbolizes a world unraveling under the weight of political apathy, climate denial, and systemic greed.

Shadows bleed into light, blurring the boundary between truth and propaganda, safety and chaos. By distorting perspective, I aim to evoke both urgency and disorientation - reflecting how power manipulates fear while ignoring accountability.

The sky isn’t just falling; it’s being pulled down.

Materials & techniques: Collage of assorted fabrics (commerical, home dec, burlap). Surface design with variegated thread, braid, and embossed velvet acorn. Machine quilted.

Trust the Process

Artist: Joan Martin
38.5 x 38

“Grandma, trust the process” were words my grandson said to me when I was venting my frustration while working on a new method for creating quilts. Two years later I would be repeating those words to him as he ventured off to boot camp as a US Marine Corps recruit.

This quilt is based on a photo I took while attending my grandson’s graduation at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, CA. The row of trees standing in formation reminded me of the young Marine graduates who trusted and endured the process to become a Marine. This quilt was made using the method I developed that spurred my grandson’s advice.

Materials & techniques: Machine pieced and quilted. Cotton fabric, batting, and thread.

Somebody Told Me To Google It...

Artist: Laura Martinez
24 x 34

“Somebody Told Me To Google It…” represents the fact that information systems and artificial intelligence provides all of us with a choice to learn and experience the world through virtual reality or reality.

The people in the right hand corner of this piece see a landscape of easily accessible computer keys and screens, with a less accessible, real landscape in the distance. There is beckoning light in the distant sky, and layers of hills and mountains.

What would it take to experience that reality, to stand in that light and walk through that mountainous landscape? What would be missed by experiencing that landscape solely through virtual reality and digitized information? When is it enough to simply “Google It”?

Materials & techniques: Raw edge fused applique of hand-dyed, hand-painted and commercial fabric. Machine quilted. Surface design with hand embroidery.

Breaking Rules

Artist: Lyn McCarty
42 x 33

There are few rules in modern art quilting—in fact, somebody told me, “In SAQA we break rules!”

Avant garden artist Pablo Picasso famously said "Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist."

I did that—I set rule-bound thinking aside to let freedom from expectations drive my choices, considering modern and traditional quilt construction.

This design is broken in so many ways but bound by the use of a similar materials, colors and forms, except when it is not—a tiny bit of orange, a focal element made of paper, just one perfect circle. Giving symbolic voice to the theme, an old ruler declares a rule of its own and asks if we measure up. Initials scratched into the ruler break a rule, I’m sure.

This is me, Pablo, using rules like a pro, then breaking a few to create art.

Materials & techniques: Cotton fabric, upcycled quilt blocks, rice paper and an antique wooden ruler. Machine pieced and hand and machine quilted. Cotton batting.

Someone Told Me … They're Mad About Pink

Artist: Elaine Millar
24 x 33

Pink...my three year-old granddaughter is indeed mad for PINK. And she's willing to shout it from the roof tops. But then, what's not to like about a color so joyful. It puts a smile on my face too!

Materials & technique: Machine pieced and quilted. Fused applique. Commercial, hand dyed, and screen printed cotton.

What Goes Around Comes Around

Artist: Sherrie Moomey
31.5 x 23

What Goes Around Comes Around is often self fulfilling.

My design is inspired by Frantisek Kupka’s "Disc of Newton" series. Kupka drew inspiration from astronomy and the sun’s color spectrum (plus White) as first identified by Sir Isaac Newton.

Materials & techniques: Raw edge fused applique with commercial and hand dyed cottons. Machine quilting. Ecofelt batting.

Blackbird by the Beatles

Artist: Judith Phelps
41 x 39

The haunting melody and words of the 1960’s civil rights song of Blackbird is the inspiration for this quilt.

The deep, shadowed edges symbolize the barriers that can confine us, holding us back from reaching outward and embracing freedom. In contrast, the soft glow of the moon represents hope and encouragement - a steadfast light urging us to rise above what restrains us and move toward our fullest potential.

Change often begins with one brave soul willing to take flight, sparking a revolution that others may follow. The idea is echoed in the birds soaring into the night, while a few remain behind, pausing to watch and weighing the choice to break free.

Materials & techniques: Commercial cottons and hand painted fabrics. Raw edge applique, machine piecing and machine quilting.

Somebody Told Me to Read a Book

Artist: Kat Puente
25 x 26

Reading is the conversation between the author and the reader, where the author creates and shares and the reader interprets and learns.

Reading transports us to new places and transforms us into thoughtful and introspective people. It can be an escape and an oasis as well as a bridge to new ideas and possibilities. It brings our emotions into the process causing us to laugh or to cry.

Books contain the human narrative whether we are looking into a mirror or through a window. They are our story.

Materials & techniques: Raw edge applique with hand and machine quilting. Hand painted cotton fabric, acrylic paints and inks.

Smoldering

Artist: Leilani Purvis
34 x 26

This quilt was inspired by the storytelling that naturally unfolds around a campfire or fireplace.

As flames flicker and logs burn, conversations deepen—shifting from casual talk to meaningful stories and shared life experiences. I've come to know the people I love more deeply through these quiet, fire lit moments while camping.

As the night wears on and the fire burns low, both the logs and the stories take on new colors. Embellishments emerge—stories become funnier, more dramatic, or more heartfelt—revealing not just events, but the emotions behind them.

Materials & techniques: Raw edge collage of batiks hand dyed and hand painted fabric, netting and faux leather. Hand embroidery. Machine quilted.

Imagine World Unity, I Wonder if I Can

Artist: Dale Ricklefs
41 x 33

I grew up in a diverse neighborhood in Chicago. My parents appreciated the value of all people. Mom's words AND deeds guided me to appreciate the value of diversity.

In today's unsettling times, it is worth looking back at the song some of us learned at church, "Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children in the World." The words in the inner ring, from Baha'u'llah, and John Lennon's "Imagine," provide the hope for us all when our world shattering.

Photos are printed on fabric and arranged on the "Supercontinent" of Pangea, existing 200 million years ago. There were no polar caps and dinosaurs and flora flourished. What if mankind at that time lived so close together? Would we have learned to appreciate each other? We can only "imagine."

Materials & techniques: Machine applique and quilting of cotton fabrics, photo printed fabrics, and cording with surface design by pen and free motion quilting.

I Don't Understand You

Artist: Deborah Runnels
47 x 31.5

I Don't Understand You reflects the disorientation caused by dyslexia, concussion trauma or other conditions that scramble language and comprehension.

A white background hosts layered typewritten words-dense, overlapping, chaotic--creating a visual echo of cognitive overload. Meaning slips away, evoking frustration, isolation and an emotional toll of miscommunication.

This quilt invites viewers to empathize with those it honors by offering a visual construct of what many experience.

Materials & techniques: Hand painted and stitched surface design. Machine quilted.

Somebody Told Me Our Gardens Are Our Soul Food

Artist: Alison Taylor
34 x 23

Creating a garden is a work of art, an act of love, and a participation in the cycle of life of all living things.

Whether kneeling down with our fingers in the dirt, walking around the garden with our morning coffee, or quietly watering, we have a chance to step back from life and bathe in the beauty around us.

Gardens are a gentle space to slow down, reflect, heal and find peace.

Materials & techniques: Raw edge applique of commerical, hand dyed, and thrifted fabrics. Hand embroidery with perle cotton. Machine quitling. 

Connecting

Artist: Barbara Triscari
37 x 39

True connections are built from listening and valuing one other.

The two women depicted by line drawings of couched yarn come from different cultures and communicate with one another: represented by the color swap of one pink on blue and the other blue on pink in a loosely yin and yang layout.

The Kawandi style quilting is a slow process of building from the periphery inward as is relationship building as you take time to learn about and appreciate who one another are.

We live such busy lives that it can be hard to slow down to really get to know someone and build together. I appreciate the Kawandis of the Sidi people in India who developed a tradition of quilting that reflects their cultural heritage.

Materials & techniques: Hand applique and quilting of cotton and wool fabrics. Beads.

Kathy Told Me She Was OK

Artist: Carolyn Walwyn
46 x 32.5

What we are told is not always the whole story. On a lovely Sunday morning Kathy and I enjoyed biking together to our favorite restaurant for brunch. Looking upbeat, she and I talked about our travel adventures for the coming year. Four hours later she took her own life. I will always wonder...

Materials & techniques: Fused collage of commercial cottons, netting, and beaded jersey. Hand and machine quilting.

Voices from Comb Ridge

Artist: Naomi Weidner
24 x 36.5

I was inspired by the many petroglyphs in the Comb Ridge area of what is now SE Utah. Rock art on the Sand Island Petroglyph Panel spans virtually the entire time that humans were known to inhabit the Four Corners area. Carbon dating indicates the area was likely occupied as early as 6,500 BC.

Communication can cross time and cultures. My indigenous ghost figure left messages for others who followed his path.

We cannot know with certainty what the artists meant when they carved or painted glyphs on sandstone. We can guess that The Procession panel might indicate participants converging on a kiva, represented by the empty circle. Sheep carvings may indicate that some were seen in the area. What about the Crane with double circles nearby? Other glyphs are completely mysterious to us.

Materials & technique: Raw edge applique of batik and cotton fabric. Surface design with cotton threads, acrylic paint and ink, commercial rubber stamps. Hand and machine quilting.

Doodles

Artist: Sarah Williams
41.5 x 37

Every conversation starts in my mind. Often, I don't include people in the conversation until I am well into a thought.

I tried doodling with acrylic markers and fabric while on the phone with my daughter to see if my focus on the conversation was any better, it worked. Now I have to figure out how to doodle when in conversation face-to-face!

Materials & techniques: Machine pieced and quilted commercial fabric with surface design by acrylic markers.

I've Lost My Marbles

Artist: Lynn Woll
31 x 30

Sometimes, don't you just feel like you've lost your marbles?

Materials & techniques: Collage of hand marbled fabric, artist made rope, felt balls, and hand stitching. Machine quilted.