SAQA Fiberlandia

I am not the best person for posting things in "real time."  It is more of an "after the fact" kind of thing for me.  Last week and this past weekend, I was in Portland, Oregon for the Studio Art Quilt Associates National Conference, Fiberlandia.

Some people were taking pictures with their phone and posting right away on Facebook and other platforms.  It was fun to see that, but for me, I like to take pictures with my camera.  Then, that requires loading them onto the computer after the fact.  Really, I am just not as attached to technology as most people are these days.

It was great to meet so many like minded people from all over the world.  As a regional representative, the conference started a day earlier for me with an all day meeting with all the SAQA representatives from all over the world.  It was good to hear other regions' success stories and that some of the other regions have some of the same challenges as I do.

Desiree Vaughn (Regional Rep Coordinator), Betty Busby, and Bill Reker (Traveling Exhibition/Shipping coordinator)

As most people were arriving on the day we had the rep meeting, there was an "Ice breaker" event in the evening led by Lyric Kinard.  A small project was involved, but the event was more about moving around and meeting people.

SAQA members working on the project.

Here I am with my portrait buddy Lisa Walton, Vice President of the Board, who is from Australia. The project involved moving around to different tables while working on it.  For the final project, we made a fabric portrait of our partner and gave it to them.

There were quite a few of us named Lisa at the conference.  At one point, there were about four of us traveling together on the MAX light rail!