art2wearblog

donderdag 12 november 2026

Carrefour - The European Quilt Show 2026, September 17-20

Among the world’s top 3 textile arts events, the European Patchwork Meeting offers a wide variety of textile artworks every year, from patchwork to embroidery, mixed media, dyeing, crochet and lace: all forms of textile art come together for 4 days of frenzy.

Considered as the cradle of the Amish community, the villages of the Val d’Argent (Alsace) open their most beautiful venues and welcome an unforgettable festival of colors and materials, with each year more than 30 exhibitions of international artists.

On Thursday we visited the exhibitions in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines.

Here are my favorite exhibitions.
In Espace the Tisserands we found the SAQA Europe & Middle East exhibition.

Every two years, members of SAQA Europe are invited to submit their most accomplished works for the exhibition Wide Horizons. For this 10th edition, the theme once again opens a broad field of interpretation and experimentation.

This year I had a quilt in the show: Coral Reef.

Detail Coral Reef

We went on to the Pavillion Osmond where we admired the Contest quilts.

This year’s theme was Habitat, an exhibition bringing together 30 quilts selected by jurors Brenda Gael Smith, Sophie Zaugg, and Teresa Duryea Wong.
Thirty contemporary works that showcase the vitality of today’s quilt art.
Through bold approaches, nuanced compositions, and distinctive textile voices, these quilts explore what it means to inhabit the world today. Urban spaces, intimate refuges, fragile territories, and imagined landscapes all become material for creation.

Here are my favorites:

with Galla Grotto and Jungeun Tark

And the Winner is La forêt en lumière, Hwakyung LEE (KR)

An exhibition I really liked was the work of Heide König.

3D pieces, primarily composed of truncated pyramids featuring varied openings and dimensions.

Each work is double-sided, presenting distinct spatial experiences depending on the viewpoint. The upward- and downward-facing pyramids create a dynamic interplay of light, shadow, and depth—inviting viewers to look in, look out, and look through. Her abstract and intuitive practice remains rooted in continuous free-motion stitching.

These lines form the structural foundation of each piece before layers of acrylic paint and oil sticks are applied. The painting process generates a second visual narrative on the reverse side, revealed only when the quilt is removed from the design wall. This element of surprise is integral to her creative joy.

On Friday we went to Sainte-Croix-Mines. We started in the Salle des Fêtes with exhibitions of more traditional quilts.
From there we walked to the small chapel with the exhibition of Sophie Zaugg.

In the afternoon we went to the Guldusi exhibition in Eglise Saint Nicolas.

I will tell more about that in a seperate post.

vrijdag 21 augustus 2026

Flower Festival Aalsmeer

June 26 to 28 2026, Aalsmeer

The Flower Art Museum and the Historical Garden Museum have been organizing the Aalsmeer Flower Festival for many years.
A well-attended event combining floral art, visual arts, heritage, and music.

aalsmeerflowerfestival

This year, the theme was “Masterpieces.”

Nine famous artworks were selected to serve as a source of inspiration during this festival.
Due to the renovation of the Flower Art Museum location on the Kudelstaartseweg, this year the Mennonite Church at Zijdstraat 55 in Aalsmeer was dedicated to visual arts and floral art.

My coat Still*Life was part of the exhibition.
One of the inspirational artworks was the painting Bloem Stilleven by Rachel Ruysch.

Rachel Ruysch, Still Life with Flowers, 1709

You can read more here rachel-ruysch-nature-into-art

The work of Rachel Ruysch intrigues me enormously. Like her teacher Van Aelst and other contemporaries, she composed bouquets of flowers that bloom in different places and seasons, which she arranged in stunning color combinations that could never exist in real life. The bouquets, garlands, and fruit arrangements are enlivened by an ever-changing group of insects, birds, snails, rodents, and reptiles. I have incorporated all these elements into the coat with great pleasure.

Still*Life

Still*Life, detail

What happens when art and flowers meet?

During the Flower Festival in Aalsmeer, the Masterpieces theme took center stage. Inside the Mennonite Church, works of art were translated into unique floral arrangements. Each creation demonstrated how flowers can tell a story and how creativity opens new perspectives. An inspiring example of the versatility of floral design.