Whidbey Island artists, Carol Barton Jerome of Clinton, Janet Steadman of Langley and Marianne Burr of Coupeville have been invited to exhibit their quilts in two shows in Brazil this month and in July.

The story goes that Zeca Medeiros, a former soap opera actor in Brazil, became enamored with art quilts and wanted to familiarize Brazilian quilters with the type of art quilts made in other countries. He discovered the Contemporary QuiltArt Association website which was created by a group of Washington artists to promote contemporary quilt art.

After seeing their work, Medeiros invited several CQA members to participate in a Rio de Janeiro exhibit last year. In the fall, he attended an association meeting and saw some more work.

“He invited the three of us along with others to exhibit quilts in this year’s show,” Steadman said.

The quilters have each sent three pieces to Rio de Janeiro for display for a show titled “Rio Patchwork Design 2011,” which was in Rio de Janeiro June 2-4 and will continue in Sao Paulo, Brazil in July.

Two of the invited participants will win trips to next year’s show. Two winners from last year’s invitation are in Brazil now for the current shows, one from Tacoma and the other from Seattle. Those artists will give lectures about their work while there.

With a comment that shows quilting artists’ appreciation for good design, Steadman mentioned a certain symmetry that was noticed in the face of the Brazilian host.

“One of last year’s trip winners suggested that I mention how handsome Zeca is,” Steadman said.