Capitolizing on Fiber SAQA Conference in metropolitan Washington, DC

I will be teaching this workshop "How to Promote your Work without Apologizing!" at SAQA's Alexandria' VA's Conference this May 2013.

This interactive empowerment workshop will look at:
• Our perceptions of ourselves as artists and or quilters.
• How to promote our work without apologizing.
• How we talk about our artwork casually, at gallery openings, and lectures.

This mini workshop will offer tools to help participants strengthen self-talk and business-talk

• How do you answer these questions when introduced?
o Who are you?
o What do you call yourself?
o What medium do you use most?
o Where can I see your work?

I am asking workshop attendees to bring the answer on a sheet of paper the size of a postcard.

They will also be asked to bring their authentic selves to the workshop..." and the one you want to be, the person you want to introduce to the movers and shakers, the person you have been striving towards, the one you want to introduce to the next curator or gallery owner who has asked around about you and your work, the one who is wondering if you would fit… their next promotion, their next event, their next exhibition to a tee!..."

That is the person I want to meet and really need to interact with. Why? So that you come away from the workshop empowered and imbued with the tools you need to achieve your goals.

Best Regards,
Valarie Poitier

Life Coach, Job Readiness Instructor, Lecturer,
New England Quilt Museum Board Member
Curator, New England Quilt Museum's 2013 Images Exhibition's Special Exhibit of MA/RI SAQA Members "Three Cohesive Pieces" Exhibit August 2013
Curator, Chair SAQA-NEQM-2009-2011 Project "No Holds Barred"
SAQA Rep MA/RI, Member PAM Jurying Committee

Next SAQA Regional Meeting 5/25 at Button Box Quilt Shop

Michele David my co-rep and I are pleased to announce a special exhibit of works by SAQA MA/RI members called "Three cohesive pieces" at IMAGES, Lowell quilt festival. 

This is a great opportunity for a large number of our SAQA members to participate in a unique exhibit.  There will be a tight turn-around of deadlines. The work cannot have been displayed at Images before as a group. This exhibit will be curated by Michele David and Valarie Poitier.

Updates in Red, as of 5/23/2013

The object of this special exhibit is to have each quilter display three cohesive pieces of work.  Those quilts on display will clearly have been created by one person, and be united by some combination of subject, color, style, voice, or technique.  The work can have been made during the past 5 years. [updated] 

Our deadlines are as follows:

June15 images and entry due at the Museum.

June 26 acceptance sent out via email.

August 2, 12:00 pm quilts due at the NEQM

Active SAQA MA/RI Members and members listing MA/RI as of May 2013 Active member report for our region can submit up to 2 sets of 3 cohesive quilts .  Note only 1 set can be hung. Entry fee is $ 30 to be payable to Lowell Quilt Festival.

email saqamari@gmail.com

We are still working on the juried, combined New England Regionals Exhibit, called "Color make as a bold statement" more information to follow.

SAQA Meeting Reminder: 

Saturday, May 25^, 2013

10:00 am
Button Box Quilt Shop
5 Overbrook Dr. 
Wellesley, MA 02482
(781) 489-6515

Fondest Regards,
Ms. V

Teaching or sitting in workshops - The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

There are a lot of pros and cons for the Teacher and the student when faced with so many different expectations. Most blurbs I read are about the horror or excitement of the student. Not a lot found on the trials and tribulations of the teacher, workshop leader, or the instructors.

The last workshop I taught the students came unprepared, they had a list of what was expected but were so accustomed to being disappointed that they arrived in an untimely manner and with that sort of monotone speaking voice thing people do when they expect to be bored or disappointed.

Well, when they left it was a totally different story. Their mouths dropped open during the session many times and the comments were on the order of 'this is exactly what I wanted to learn' so what is my concern as the instructor? The amount of energy it takes to pump up the group to be in a receptive mood and to open their eyes, ears, and yes their hearts to receive, was enormous. Keeping everyone involved and excited about what they were doing, having dragged or hauled extra...just in case supplies was a God send, but tiring.

Think about it...when you go to a class and you are pumped up and excited...and the instructor is great and knowledgeable, more knowledgeable than you even is terrific. When the instructor is reading out of the book only one step ahead of you is a drag and so disappointing that most people lose interest and even stop working.

So what's main point here...if you pay for a class, or someone else pays, or the instructor volunteers to share information that they have spent years or months even learning for the purpose of sharing with you...make the most of it. Come prepared for a great class. Accept what is being taught and if you are listening very carefully even a class where you should have signed up for the next level, as if you could figure that out before hand - not, there are some gems to be had. Look for them, if you learn a few things and you continue in the field of interest they will come in handy. There is a reason you are there beyond what you signed up or showed up for. Try it, if you do, you will walk away from every training experience with something powerful.

For the trainer, instructor, or teacher every experience sheds light on how to present the information in different ways based on the last set of students they had. In this new world of technology I have found that one thing has not changed, human nature, human types, human likes and dislikes. After you have taught for ten or twenty years you can look out on the class after just a few minutes with the students and actually pick out certain types. The beauty of this is two fold, you will either be absolutely right or you will be surprised. I hope the surprises are all blessings and the times you are right you will receive them with humility.

Regards,
Ms. V

Praying for Quilters, quilting, Painters painting...

Heavenly Father

I pray for all my sisters and brothers, who are quilting, and painting, and stretching, but

Not more or less for any one of them

At times we lift one or another up to you for a special blessing

As many have done on my behalf recently

And it is with thanks giving that I am responding to such unselfish acts of kindness

I pray that we all might all be blessed to extend acts of kindness to one another on a regular basis

Not only when one’s health fails, or one looses a job or when one gains one, nor when ones relationships

End or begins, or when we gain or lose a family member, or have our candidate voted in or not

I would that we ‘just’ remember to pray on each others behalf

I pray for all my sisters and brothers, regardless what they may have said or done in my past or present

I pray for all my sisters and brothers, regardless what they may have missed

saying or may have missed doing in each others past or present

I pray that we may through your grace realize that some of what we say

or do should be left unsaid, or undone, in our future


It is a challenge to create a work Lord and to have others critique that work.
Sometimes the words used hurt, unman, disable, or even cause an artist, a quilter, a person just starting out to
turn away from expressing themselves in any venue that leaves them open to criticism and not positive talk

Heavenly Father, your word can empower us in a way that stills our tounges and stops us from hurting one another

Lead us to do or say more based on what you have taught us through your word, and remind us to read your word

Heavenly Father guide our words in a way, that we may pass along a blessing, be a blessing, be a deed to one another

Show us where to find the ability to sharpen our skills so that we encourage each other, build each other up, empower each other

Heavenly Father I have been favored and blessed these pass months, as have all who read these words

At times knowingly, at times without a clue, at times because someone made a sacriface

At times because I or we made the sacriface, at times because I or we read your word

At times because we heard your word read, oft times together, oft times alone and lonely and forgetting that you are there for us at all times empowering us and blessing us.

I pray for all my brothers and sisters

Not more or less for any one of them

I pray for me, myself, to remind me to read your word regularly

to remind myself to be a blessing and if you are willing Oh Lord a candle, to light the way

Help me to stitch or draw, or paint, or write in such a way as to lead or head in the direction of the blessings you have in store for me.

Amen

Deciding which Exhibition to enter

It is that time of the year when I try to decide which exhibitions have topics or themes that are running concurrent with the quilts I want to make over the next 12-15 months. The hardest part of this task is to not get caught up in the woulda, coulda, shoulda trap.
I really want to enter at least 12 different exhibits, alas, there is only time for one or two. How do I select the two that are closest to what I already have begun sketches and color schemes for? Not an easy answer, no matter how you look at it. Some quilts want to be made. Some quilts will find their way on your cutting and drafting table without you knowing how they managed to get there. Other quilts are torn out of you fabric by fabric, thread by thread, and sewing appointment or class no matter what you find yourself working on the piece even when you did not have it booked as a part of your sewing or creative time.
This year I have already committed my self to creating an antique money chest, a fractured square piece, and to write a book. How can I add two additional quilts when I know one is already spoken for and the other is screaming to be let out of my fabric totes?
Well it looks like another night will pass and the answer for question will find itself on the back burner. I promised I would finish one Unfinished Project or UFO, and finish one project that has already been figured out, fabric purchased, cut, and is sitting in my traveling bag. What is a quilter to do? Give up the new quilt ideas swimming around in my head? Or should I just keep trying to stay ahead of the pile of quilt tops that are piling up on what used to be my stash table.
That table hasn't seen the light of day in months, ok, years. But as soon as I get the UFO's done I will be able to have a solo quilt show, LOL. Have a great night and remember, sew a little, cut a little, and dream a lot...when it is almost midnight.

Ms. V