Gail Wax
Quilt Artist
Creativity was a regular social experience in my family, so I don’t remember a time that I wasn’t involved in something artistic, including drawing, collage, painting, sculpture, sewing, knitting, crochet, and much more. My friends and family and I constructed high school dance decorations in our garage and built homecoming floats in our living room, all while listening to my brother's rock band practice in the den!My current passion for art quilting began a decade ago when I attended a local guild meeting and met a wonderful group of characters that called themselves “The Art Focus Group.” Imagine my joy when I saw them use not only fabric, paint, but also yarns, threads, beads, metals and more. Art quilting breaks the sewing boundaries while still forcing me to constantly improve my sewing and quilting skills.
My body of work is a testament to both my love of learning (and teaching) and my inherently short attention span. One of my first art quilts, "Busy Bee", was juried into New Quilts of Northern California during the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, California, and has won both a judge's ribbon and show ribbon. The offbeat work shown above is part of a cape design that was also accepted by PIQF and won second place in a garments category.
While I still do traditional quilting, vintage quilt restoration and fabric hoarding as both work and hobbies, you will most often find me viewing, photographing or working on an art quilt.
I am pleased to now be affiliated with the Parkland Parish Quilt Shop in Tacoma, Washington, and hope to meet you there soon! In addition, we will be hosting art quilting classes for beginners, and I can assure you, no "talent" or "training" is required… just comfortable clothes and a desire to play with fabric. You can do that, right?
