NQA in Columbus, Ohio
In June I had the great good fortune to be invited to teach at the National Quilt Association show in Columbus, Ohio. What FUN! I had never been to the show, tho last year had a quilt in a special exhibit and won an Honorable Mention for my Bijagos Warrior quilt. So this year was an all-new experience for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the show… it had top level quilts (entry is first-come gets in, not juried! the only show I think at the national level that isn’t juried), great vendors, but was not so huge that you felt overwhelmed. I knew Marjorie Hallowell, owner of my local Maine-ly Sewing shop would be vending, but didn’t expect to meet anyone I knew other than two ladies from the Janome 6500/6600/7700 list who were to be in my classes. Imagine my surprise then when I went into the hall on set-up day to take something to Marge, when I hear “Sarah Smith! What are you doing here!” and turn to see Judi Yakab, hand-dyer extraordinaire and owner of Mamaw’s Hand-dyes.
Judi and I met in a Carol Soderlund dyeing workshop a few years back held at ProChem in Fall River, Mass. It’s wonderful to see how her business has taken off! An aisle away I found Marge, then while strolling along a tall woman pops into the aisle (I was nearly asleep at this point) and shouts “Sarah Ann Smith”! And there were mom and daughter team Jan and Kirsten from Fiber on a Whim! A couple days later, I met Nancy Z. who runs Maine Quilts and was there with her sister and mom…. AND, remember that trip to teach for the Arizona Quilt Guild? Well I think about 80 percent of that guild’s leadership is ALSO part of the leadership of the NQA, and everywhere I turned were familiar faces…what FUN!
Here are some of my favorite quilts, and I will confess… I committed the cardinal sin and forgot to get pics of the makers. If any of you know who they are, please tell me and I’ll add the info:
And the last morning….the sunrise sky wasn’t quite that lavender in real life, but it was beautiful:
I’ll have some pictures of my classes…alas I was so busy in two of them that I forgot to take many pictures!
July 11th, 2010 at 10:54 am
Quilts are gorgeous! Thanks for the pictures. Maybe next year…..
July 12th, 2010 at 7:30 am
NQA is on my list for next year. One of my guild members got an honorable mention for one of her quilts. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t a juried show.