Catherine Whall Smith

2025 Reminder – STILL TIME TO ENTER – ARTS CENTER EAST 4th Annual Fiber Arts Exhibition – DEADLINE FEBRUARY 7, 2025.  Opening Reception Saturday March 1 st, 2025 2:00 pm Exhibit Dates: March 1 – 29th, 2025 Gallery Hours : Thursday – Saturday, 1:00 – 5 p.m. For more information go to https://artscentereast.org/exhibits/#artist-opportunities and scroll down.

2025 UP-COMING SHOW OPENING – 79th Annual Connecticut Artists Juried Exhibition, at the Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich CT; sponsored by the Katherine Forest Crafts Foundation. OPENING reception Saturday, January 25th at 1 pm, with special awards announced at 2 pm. The exhibition will close on Friday, February 28th. This year’s exhibition features artwork across various mediums, selected by juror, Sandra Jeknavorian, Professor of Painting and Drawing at Connecticut State Community College at Three Rivers, Program Coordinator of Visual Arts, and Director of the Three Rivers Gallery.  My piece “Body Bones” has been included in this Exhibition.  The full list of this year’s accepted works can be found by clicking here.

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During 2025, I continue to work in my “Bones” series and have complete several small PARTS, as shown below; “TWO heads are better than ONE” (16H x 12W); “Resting BONES” (14H x 14W) ; and, Happy Family (20H x 16W).

Time for a belated Happy New Year 2025! Stay Safe! Smith Stitch Studio! Catherine Whall Smith – catherinewhallsmith.com

Just passing this link along from a publication called Creative Whimsy – which just posted info on my Fiber Art.

https://createwhimsy.com/projects/spotlight-catherine-whall-smith-art-quilter/

Stay Safe! SmithStitch Studio! Catherine Whall Smith https://catherinewhallsmith.com/

2024 – Arts Center East, Vernon, CT – 3rd Annual Fiber Arts Exhibit – Opening Reception Saturday, February 3rd, 2024 2- 4 pm. Exhibit Dates: February 3 – March 2, 2024 Gallery Hours: Thursday–Saturday, 1:00–5:00pm for more information visit www.artscentereast.org – “What Remains” and “The Joy of the Ride” HKYD#8 have been juried into this exhibit.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2024!! Stay Safe . . . Smith Stitch Studio https://catherinewhallsmith.com/

A Happy belated Thanksgiving 2023! Once again we hosted the family dinner with a 19 lb. unstuffed turkey; which baked to perfection in a lot less time than I had predicted.

Then as usual LOTS OF STUFF occupied my time – like continuing my studio reorganization and house hold purge. Right now my studio panels have the beginnings of a new Hay piece – though my brain is not there yet! NOTE: I always work on TWO PANELS at the same time. One panel has the random thoughts – the other – some moveable sections. HOW about YOU? A multi-tasker like me OR ????

During my purge I came across some notes from a group show that I did at the Hartford Fine Art & Framing Store in East Hartford, CT. Here is one of the questions that I was asked – “Discuss how/why you recreate smaller sections of the larger piece and why. My response included the fact that my “PARTS” series started as a way to study sections of the larger piece. And to have something ready to hand quilt on a regular basis. “Green Replaces Pink” was so named as I didn’t have a single scrap of the “Kite Strings'”fabric in pink. So substituting a piece of green fabric led to its name. For more PARTS see https://catherinewhallsmith.com/small-studies/ . So what do you do when you run out of a favorite fabric, paint or whatever?

Stay Safe . . . Smith Stitch Studio! https://catherinewhallsmith.com/

The 12 pieces in my “Hay . . . Keep Your Distance” series https://catherinewhallsmith.com/portfolio/2008-2-2/ have each been shown in various venues throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts. Here are a few; The Monson Arts Council; Art Center East, Vernon, CT; Guilford Art Center, Guilford, CT; Greenwich Art Society, Greenwich, CT; Milford Art Center, Milford, CT; Connecticut Women Artists, Inc.; Windham Textile & History Museum, Willimantic, CT; Gallery 53, Meriden, CT; CAFA = MEMBERS Virtual Show; Mixmaster @ Post University Downtown Waterbury, CT; New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, Mass. “Edges” Highland Hall Falmouth, MA.; Fairfield University Bookstore, Fairfield, CT and various show publications.

Starting October 27th “Love Letters as the Numbers GROW!” will be at the Mystic Museum of Art, Mystic CT. from October 27 @ 11:00 am – December 17 @ 5:00 pm. NOTE: During the early months of the Covid-19 Pandemic I was totally engaged in my studio. My newest series “Hay . . . Keep Your Distance” was my focus and kept me busy creating #1 thru #12. The pair of American Gold Finch reinforces the idea that we should practice social distancing. All the materials in this series came from my studio stash., as I feared going out! – I wondered during the Pandemic how many “Love Letters” were sent out and how many were received. So start TYPING!

This Exhibition: “ART in Common” – will have an OPENING RECEPTION on Thursday, October 26th 5:30 – 7:00. My piece shown below “Love Letters”won an Honorable Mention Award.

UPDATE: TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO SEE: Special Exhibit: Sewn Stories, Shared Lives Art Exhibit. at the Windham Textile & History Museum, Willimantic, CT. through November 12th, 2023. A fiber art exhibit featuring works by Linda Martin and Carol Vinick. Artists’ Statement: “We, Linda and Carol, are a Black American and a Jewish American, sisters who came together because of our gifts expressing ourselves through fabric art. We come from different backgrounds but share stories with common threads of struggle and survival. Our intent is to create thought-provoking quilts that express the vibrancy of life and pay homage to the resilience and courage of those who came before us. Museum is open Friday-Sunday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The exhibit is included in admission to the Museum and, of course, current Museum members are free.

Finally, the SAQA Auction 2023 – Thank you to everyone who donated artwork, purchased a piece, and helped us share about the SAQA Benefit Auction. Through your generosity, we’ve raised over $75,000!

Happy Halloween ! Smith Stitch Studio https://catherinewhallsmith.com/

Sometimes my quilts receive a name before, during, or after the initial design phase. Like “Lyme Disease” which is one of my pieces that received this name after the top was finished. It’s original name was “Yellow line serie #1” because it was part of my line series – which all used the same fabrics. Here is it’s story; “Days before leaving for a two week family vacation at a Rhode Island beach – I became deathly ill and was diagnosed with Lyme disease – including the babesosus strain. The cure 3 antibiotics (one referred to as yellow paint) taken several times a day for over a month. The thought of taking Tylenol makes me twitch – so this much medication – made me cranky and a bit lethargic. My Savior was this quilt. Unable to spend time in the sun, due to the meds I focused on hand quilting this piece. . . The pulsing lines and colors reminded me of being infected with lyme disease. NOTE: There have been 2,609 tics submitted so far in 2023.

Below is some information on this series.

Lyme Disease – (line series #1 – 2009) Size (51 x 45) used “Dream Green” earth friendly batting made of 100% recycled plastic bottles approximately 13 bottles for this quilt. Hand Quilted over 68,000 stitches.

The following pieces in this series all used “Dream Green earth friendly batting” – all were Sold at that time except for Lyme Disease which I still own.

Yellow #2 (18 x 24) – 2 bottles for this quilt batting – Over 10,600 hand quilted stitches

Yellow #3 (24 x 24) – 2 bottles for this quilt batting– Over 10,900 hand quilted stitches

Yellow #4 (18 x 24) – 2 bottles for this quilt batting– over 10,700 hand quilted stitches

Yellow #5 (24 x 24) – White cotton batting 12, 500 hand quilted stitches

NOTE: The design line that I used in this series started with a Nancy Crow workshop that I took at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA in 2009 – 14 years ago. Now many years later I will head out to see Nancy Crow’s current exhibit at the Schweinfurth Museum in Auburn New York. Check it out! https://schweinfurthartcenter.org/nancy-crow-sequences-riffs-and-drawings/

Happy 4th of July week -end! Watch the Fireworks and Watch out for the ticks!

Stay Safe – Smith Stitch Studio!! https://catherinewhallsmith.com/