("Make It Sew")
When you get to a certain age, it is far too easy to just hang with your old gang, have a chatfest with your usual BFF girlfriends, and look at life… and quilts… in the same old way.
However one of the pleasures of being part of the great International Quilting Club is that wherever you go, you may find a new best friend. Or a few. Or a bunch! You just have to keep your eyes open for those little telltale signs that you've found a fellow quilter.
I have a new friend who is a professional musician, and a screenplay writer. When she comes into town for work, she stays with a quilter. So today when I dropped her off after lunch, I got to come inside and see the quilts and the studio.
The studio has high ceilings, big picture windows, and a 2nd floor wrap-around porch with a view of the mountains. There was a king-size paper-pieced cat quilt made with a beautiful collection of batiks, laid out on a king-size design wall. There was a landscape quilt with her view of the mountains. There was a Kaffe Fassett quilt that had been made from a kit. I felt she was so gracious to invite me into her space and show me her quilts.
But that's what we do when we meet another quilter, right?
If you have a local or regional guild, don't underestimate the power of a guild meeting with show-and-tell, a guest speaker, coffee and chocolate chip cookies. (Where there are quilters, there is caffeine and chocolate, right?)
If you don't have a local group, make one! Having a monthly meeting with 3 or 6 or 12 like-minded creative friends, will keep you juiced up and on track with your deadlines and design goals.
National conferences (such as the SAQA conference in Wash DC in May) can be the most rewarding, where you can learn new techniques, be inspired by your peers, participate in quiltmaking challenges, and discover your own creative style in the context of all the other quilts and quilters. There is just nothing like hangin' with your quilter friends to get the ultimate buzz of inspiration. I love the internet and social media, but nothing compares to the up-close-and-personal experience of a quilt exhibit with your fellow fabriholics.
This weekend I am flying to Ohio, and will film a couple more segments for Quilting Arts TV with the new host, Susan Brubaker Knapp. (You can see previous QA TV segments on our video page.)
Then Sophie and I will go to NYC to spend the rest of our spring break at museums and art exhibits. We're going to check out the quilt exhibit at Grand Central Station, so watch for those photos.
It is snowing again here in Colorado today, but Spring's first few buds are slowly emerging. The crocuses bloomed this week, just in time for the Spring Equinox.
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