Quilting

Biography Joan Hug-Valeriote – Quilt Artist

Joan Hug-Valeriote award-winning professional quilt-artist.

Joan Hug-Valeriote is an award-winning, professional quilt/fibre artist. She is a recognized Ontario Artist who was subsidized by the Ontario Arts Council as a Visiting Artist in Education in Ontario schools over a ten year period. She is an artist member of Studio Art Quilt Associates and also provides longarm quilting services in Guelph, Ontario. 

Joan has been sewing since early childhood and has been quilting since 1977 while working in the film business and later teaching French in Toronto schools. Her quilting has been influenced by international travel as well as five years living in Switzerland, France and Spain, and four years in California. Her work has been juried into shows in the U.S., Italy, Switzerland, France and New Zealand as well as national shows in Canada such as the Grand National Quilt Exhibition and the Canadian Quilters’ Association National Juried Show. 

While in California, Joan was able to take a number of art quilting classes as well as learning how to do computer-assisted quilt design. She also pioneered an art therapy quilting program for teenage single mothers in Santa Ana.  After her return to Canada in 1999, she began accepting commissions, giving workshops and lectures and bought her first longarm quilting machine. 

In 2010, Joan became President of the Canadian Machine Quilters’ Association, overseeing a series of workshops in Ontario, sponsored by the Ontario Arts Council as well as a national show of longarm machine-quilted works by members of the CMQA in London, Ontario. She also shepherded the absorption of CMQA, after ten years of existence, into the Canadian Quilters’ Association.  

Her body of work includes traditional and contemporary bed quilts, artistic wall-hangings, and wearable art.  It ranges from small “almost Amish” pieces to Japanese-style wall-hangings and modern abstracts. She re-interprets much-loved traditional designs and settings, using unconventional forms, placement and colours, often hand-dyeing her own fabrics.   

Recently she has been working on smaller art quilts, often abstracts, after classes with Katie Pasquini-Masopust, Elaine Quehl, Dwayne Wanner and Rosalie Dace. She attended classes with Chiaki Dosho and Cecilia Gonzales at the European Patchwork Festival in France in 2015. 

Solo Shows

‘Scapes, ‘Scopes and Abstracts, Quilted wall-hangings, from landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes and microscapes to abstracts. 10C Shared Space, sponsored by the Guelph Arts Council, Guelph, Ontario, Dec. 2021

Click on any image to open gallery.

“The  Making  of an Artist – a 40 year Retropective” – quilts, film/video, photography, Ed Video Gallery, Guelph, Ont., 2014 

“ A  Variety of Art Quilts” – 10 Carden St.  upper gallery, Guelph, Ont.  2014    

“Art in the Halls” – Evergreen Centre, Guelph, Ont. 2014” 

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose” – The Quilt Gallery, St. Jacobs, Ont.  2013 

Traditional and Not-so Traditional Quilts” – The Quilt Gallery, St. Jacobs,  Ont. and The Lodge on Amherst Island, Ont.  2008 

“Small Art Quilts” – Guelph Public Library, 2011, Guelph Little Theatre.2009, Guelph Public Library, 2008 

“Francophone Quilts in Ontario” – invited artist at Woodside National Historic Site, Waterloo, Ont. 2005 

“A Quilter’s Journey” – The Quilt Gallery St. Jacobs 2004 

Selected Group Art Shows 

The Grand National Quilt Exhibit – Kitchener, Ont. , Fredericton, N.B  2021, 2015, 2011, 2005, 2004 

“Quilts of New Zealand” Ailsa Craig, Ontario  2019  

and “ New Zealand Through Our Eyes”  travelling show in New Zealand,  2019-2020 

Studio Art Quilt Associates” –  travelling global exhibitions  – “Season after Season” 2018-22
Balancing Act  – 2015-2018 

Contemporary Canadian Art Quilts” – Berlin Tower Artspace, Kitchener Ontario, curator, videomaker2017 

“Fibre Content” – Burlington Art Gallery,  Burlington, Ontario,  2018, 2016, 2014 

 Quilts at the Creek” – Black Creek Pioneer Village, North York,  2013-2016 

“Minerals” – Verona Tessile, Verona, Italy, 2012 

 Underground Railroad” Centre Wellington Municipal Building, Elora, Ontario 2012 

The Finishing Touch” – Canadian Machine Quilters’ Association, London, ON, 2011 

*Winner of the Wonderfil  award for Excellence in Innovative Use of Thread in Machine Quilting. 

”Still Standing” The Alma Gallery, Guelph, ON  2009 

Quiltmeer und Mehr” Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 2006 

Oshawa Fibre Art Show” – Oshawa, Ontario,   2005-2009 

Guild Group Shows

“A Celebration of  Quilts”  – York Heritage Quilters’ Guild , Toronto, Ont.   2017, 2014, 2011, 2008, 2006, 2004 

“A Gathering of Quilts” – Royal City Quilters’ Guild, Guelph,  Ont. 2018, 2015, 2009, 2006  

“National Quilting Month” – display of guild quilts in the Guelph Public Libraries,
by the Royal City Quilters’ Guild 2011, 2010, 2009 

Affiliations

Studio Art Quilt Associates:   https://www.saqa.com/ 

Canadian Quilters’ Association/l’Association de la courtepointe canadienne :  https://canadianquilter.com/ 

France Patchwork/ l’Association France Patchwork:  https://www.francepatchwork.com/ 

Guelph Arts Council:   https://guelpharts.ca/ 

Royal City Quilters’ Guild:   Guelph, Ontario   https://royalcityquiltersguild.ca/ 

York Heritage Quilters’ Guild:  Toronto, Ontario,  https://yhqg.org/ 

East Toronto Quilters’ Guild, Toronto (founding member and former member,  now disbanded) 

Flying Geese Quilters’ Guild, Irvine, California (former member) 

Personal

Married,  

Bilingual English/French,  working knowledge of German, Italian and Spanish 

178 Ferguson St. 

Guelph, Ont.  N1E 2Z2 

Canada 

Tel:  519 836-9388,  cell:  416 768-3775 

Email:  jhugval@horizonsquilting.ca 

Web:  https://www.horizonsquilting.ca