QuiltNebraska 2008

What a wonderful weekend I had in Chadron at QuiltNebraska 2008. The drive out there was uneventful and the Sandhills were so green this year. Since I drove up and home on highway 2 there were few cars so it made it a more relaxing drive. Round trip it was 847 miles and am so glad I had the company of two friends.

On Friday morning I had a lecture by Becky Goldsmith http://www.pieceocake.com/ that was very good - her quilts are fantastic. Friday afternoon I attended a lecture by Marsha McCloskey http://www.marshamccloskey.com/ which was also very good. I enjoy listening to lectures of national teachers as you can pick up a lots of information and not have to drag a sewing machine to a class and still get to see their fantastic quilts.

Saturday I had a class by Aie Rossmann http://www.lotuslands.ab.ca/ on hand applique. She is very knowledgeable and a very sweet gal. I felt sorry for her as she got stopped at Calgary,Canada by US customs and think from what she told us he must have been a real chauvinist and having a bad day too. She was not allowed to bring any of her finished quilts into the US unless she would cut them apart and write with a black marker "Sample" on them. Can you imagine! I bet they don't ask artists of other mediums to destroy their work. Needless to say she had to go find a place to ship all her quilts and step by step samples back to her home so she didn't have any to show in class. I was so looking forward to seeing her quilts as the photos on her website are wonderful. What a trial she had to go through to get here. The customs guy didn't understand why she just couldn't teach "sewing" to Canadians and why she was coming into the United States to teach. I told her he could make her send her quilts and samples home but he couldn't keep her knowledge of how to do the applique out of the US. I feel so sad that she was treated this way but she did a good job teaching us without any props.

The Saturday night banquet speaker was Ami Simms http://www.amisimms.com/. She was just the most delightful speaker and so funny. It would have been fun to take a class from her but can't get them all as QNE only lasts 2 1/2 days.

The entire convention seemed to run smoothly and the gals that chaired the event worked very hard as did all the committee members. If there were problems we sure didn't know about it. The photo below is of my 3 roommates and me. We have roomed together for many years at QuiltNebraska and try to get together several times a year too since we don't live close to each other. Besides these 3 it is always so much fun to visit all the other quilt friends I have made over the years - QNE is like a big family reunion for me anymore. They announced that there were 324 in attendance this year, smaller numbers than is past years but still a lot of quilters.

Next year the convention will be in Lincoln and again will look forward to it for months. I couldn't figure out who the national teachers were from the slide show presentation on Sunday morning as they didn't have any names listed but will check the NSQG website soon and find out. http://www.nsqg.org/index.html

Have been sitting here at the computer all morning catching up on my email and now need to get some laundry going and figure out what we are going to eat this noon.

Lynn