Greetings from Calgary!  I arrived late Sunday afternoon to spend the week at Quilt Canada 2010.  This event, held every other year, is hosted by the Canadian Quilters Association (CQA) and is the place to be for Canadian quilters.

Professional Development
I attended Professional Development, all day Monday and Tuesday morning.  An inclusive panel of guest presenters, including the inimitable keynote speaker Mark Lipinski, led discussion on a wide variety of topics of interest to quilting professionals.  We learned about using the media; heard from professionals working in teaching, shop ownership, longarm quilting, and art quilting; and received advice from others in the fields of branding, marketing, textile sales, and tax.

I particularly enjoyed the discussion session on balance.  Not only do we struggle to find work/life balance, but as creative professionals we are also challenged with creative/professional balance.  It seems like such a great idea to work at what you love to do until you discover you have little time left over to do what you love!

Quilt Judge Certification
Last year in Saskatoon, I attended Part 1 of the CQA Judge Certification Program.  Here in Calgary, I had the opportunity to meet up with many of my fellow classmates from that course and catch up on their progress over the past year. 

Monday afternoon, we were invited to meet with the new coordinators of the program for a round table discussion.  We were able to ask questions, share concerns, offer suggestions, and hopefully contribute to the evolution of this program.  Tuesday morning, some of our members qualified to take their final examination.  I look forward to hearing the results!

Mark Lipinski Trunk Show
Monday evening, Mark returned to an audience of over 500 people.  What can I say?  He was funny, irreverent, and entertaining – he’s not called the “bad boy of quilting” for nothing!  But to top it all off, his quilts were very nice.  One almost forgot it was a trunk show during some of his exuberant stand-up comedy routines and then wow!, there was another great quilt.

National Juried Show
Can you believe I left this until last?  I guess I’ve been trying to write somewhat sequentially.  The NJS opened Tuesday evening, following the awards presentation.  Instruments of Praise had been accepted into the show, so I attended the ceremony with great anticipation.  What an honour it was to receive the award for Excellence in Appliqué!

The rest of the week will be spent in a classroom – not as a teacher or as a student, but as a volunteer!  Next week in Part 2, I’ll tell you all about it.