Art Community Support
Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA)

Good Vibrations 12x12" Candice Phelan
SAQA (www.saqa.com) is a terrific organization for art quilters. It is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development and documentation. Each year SAQA conducts a benefit auction, selling many donated 12 inch square quilts to raise funds for education and outreach.
Candice made her first SAQA donation quilt, Good Vibrations, in 2011 and has participated every year since. The design featured curved, woven strips in vibrant complementary royal blue and bright orange that provided the backdrop for textured embellishments of metallic hand quilting; couched yarn; cubed, copper-colored and gold glass beads.
Candice made her first SAQA donation quilt, Good Vibrations, in 2011 and has participated every year since. The design featured curved, woven strips in vibrant complementary royal blue and bright orange that provided the backdrop for textured embellishments of metallic hand quilting; couched yarn; cubed, copper-colored and gold glass beads.

Fireball Mini, c. 2012 - Candice Phelan
(No Flash Used)
Candice's 2012 donation to the SAQA auction was Fireball Mini, in the same 12-inch square format as Good Vibrations, above. Fireball Mini is a small color study of Candice's Circle-Quilt series that are 42-inch square quilts with 36-inch luminescent circles representing a sphere. The design features a 10-inch diameter circle made up of over 500 3/4-inch circles in flame colors of deep red, oranges, and yellows in values ranging from light to dark. This "fireball" is set on a black background with concentric circles quilted using black metallic thread. In addition to thread-painting on all of the little circles making up the sphere, each circle is also quilted. In total, 16 different threads were used on this little quilt for the thread painting, quilting, and bobbin work on the back side.

The 2013 donation quilt represents a new direction in the Sphere series: Adding additional interest and detail in the spheres.
2014 donation quilt, The Edge of Space?