"Neither Snow Nor Rain Nor Heat Nor Gloom of Night..."*

*creed, US Postal Service

Shall keep determined artists from their workshop!

Shaganappi Community Hall -- without snow!

Eleven intrepid SAQA colleagues and friends drove carefully through heavy wet snow, by-passing fallen tree limbs, to attend our Calgary workshop with Susan Purney Mark on September 10th.  Another joined us later for the Parlour Meeting over lunch.

It was a time of learning, experimenting, and sharing amidst laughter and lively camaraderie inside the cozy log walls of the Shaganappi Community Hall in Southwest Calgary.

As the Co-Rep who initiated the event, I was blessed and thankful to have members Alison Cowitz, Marie McEachern and Helene Blanchet as my "feet on the ground" -- procuring the venue and helping with all the details of The Day -- including unexpected snow shovelling!

Susan led us in her "Colour It, Fuse It!" workshop...and the photos speak for themselves...

Susan PM introduces the workshop.

Starting to paint our fusible webs and inter-facings.
(L)-(R): Trudy, Diane, Marion Susan, Marie, Pat

Marion gets colourful with her fusibles,

Shalaya and Bush are focused!

During lunch, we had our SAQA Parlour Meeting.  Many of the participants had never met before the workshop, and were eager to get together and meet again in similar or smaller group(s).  Not having a formal "chapter" system like some organizations needn't be an impediment to meeting -- and members don't need a Co-Rep to be present! :-)  Ideally, though, Co-Reps will be kept informed about groups that form and what they are up to, so they can share information with the Region at large and with new members looking for a way to connect locally.  (Refer to the "May I Have a Word? Vol. 1, No. 2" article about the formal "Pod" system established by Co-Reps in Florida around major population centres.)

One Calgary member has offered to be a point person for a group there, with meetings starting in the spring (like many, she's a snow-bird)...and I know there are "clusters" who meet in various locales in B.C.  Why wait till spring?  Another issue of the newsletter will be going out soon...If you are interested in being "point person" for a small group where you are, contact me and I will forward that information on to the Region in the newsletter -- OR contact your Co-Rep (me in AB, Katie Stein Sather in B.C. and Dawn Piasta in SK/MB) so one of us can link you with members closer to home.

We ended off the lunch meeting with show and tell:

Trudy shows and tells us about her beautiful piece.

Susan's piece, A Bridge Between Equals
will be shown at  Quilts=Art=Quilts,  Schweinfurth Museum,
New York, November 1, 2014 - January 4, 2015

In addition to "Show" there was a "Tell" -- two bits of news from member Diane Duncan:

• She has a piece included in the soon-to-be-released book, 1000 Quilt Inspirations! and
• She and other Calgary-area SAQA members have pieces in a current exhibit by the Quilted Mouse Guild at the Fish Creek Library, 11161 Bonaventure Drive S.E., Calgary -- open Mondays-Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sundays, noon - 5 p.m.  The venue is light, bright and airy, which shows off the artwork beautifully.  This exhibit runs through September 27, so if you're in the area, do drop by!

After lunch -- fusing with foil!

Susan introduces the foiling technique

Trudy gets the pressure just right.

Examples of our foiling fun.

Foiling was followed by a session using stencils and thermo-fax screens -- each one of us got to select one of each to try and to take home for further experimentation.

Throughout the day we were invited to shop for more delights -- hand-dyed fabric and threads, more thermo-fax screens, stencils, etc. -- in Susan's Workshop Store.  We could also sign up to receive her newsletter, "Design Notes".

Susan's Workshop Store

All in all, the day sped by...so that we forgot that out on the back of the Community Hall property, it looked like this...

Limbs down over the sidewalk near the drive to the hall.

Again I am thankful to the members who helped this day to come to pass, to Susan Purney Mark for her light-hearted and skilled presentation, and to the enthusiasm of the members who want to carry the ball for future gatherings to share their art, and their knowledge, establishing connections and making friendships that continue to grow and establish the art quilting community.

The final word is from Diane, who sent me this photo of her finished piece from the workshop.  She wrote:

It is off to the retreat as part of our exchange!  My theme for the show and tell is 'exploring abstraction'!