This week I am writing to you from Arlington Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington DC. I have a lovely view of the Capitol Building from my hotel window, and I can't stop thinking of that painting Washington Crossing the Delaware, for some reason.
I am here for the SAQA Annual Conference, as a sponsor but also to preview the "Urban Textures" fundraiser collection to the membership.
The 6 artists whose work was chosen for this collection are:
Janice Paine Dawes, Elizabeth Brandt, Linda Engstrom, Martha Ressler, Laura Wasilowski and Shandra Belknap. Congratulations to all of you!
My other very exciting news is that today Bonnie McCaffery and I spent part of the day filming at the DAR Museum in Washington DC, and we will have 3 videos about the DAR's quilt collections. I feel so fortunate to have had access to the curator Alden, and to the archives and exhibits that are not open to the public.
This opportunity came to me through my contact at the US Embassy in Rome. You may recall that I gave 2 presentations at the embassy in September 2012. (and I will be there again this September) That contact happened as a result of my longtime connection to Quilt Italia, which is the national quilt guild of Italy. You just never know where your quilty networking will take you!
We were also able to sit down and interview art quilt icon Yvonne Porcella, who is the founder and a past president of SAQA. What an amazing, courageous woman she is. She has a new book coming out soon which we will carry at eQuilter.
The best moment Friday night was when an eQuilter customer came up to tell me that while she was recovering from brain surgery, she passed the time by reading our blogs and looking at our fabrics at eQuilter. We got a little teary-eyed together and exchanged some quilty hugs.
My mom flew with me to DC, and my cousin flew up from Austin, so they are busy visiting with my brother who lives in Rockville MD, and works as an architect 2 blocks from the White House. He has worked on a lot of high profile projects over the years, including the Spy Museum and several embassies. We're having a little family reunion Sunday and Monday, then it's back home to prepare for my next trip to Quilt Market, and Design Week in NYC.
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