Katie's Hand in AQATS 2003?

I wanted to share a story about "Landmarks" by Leesa Gawlik, the quilt which was
awarded the Heartstring Quilter's award and the couple who has purchased the quilt. I
was still in the gallery after the brunch on the opening weekend of the AQATS show
and trying to get out of there to go home. I was on my way out when Betty Ann Fellner,
the Sedgwick director, asked me to talk to a couple who had some questions about the
quilts and the how-to's of the medium. I spent about 15 minutes chatting with them
about the various quilts including the award winners, and learned that the woman is a
former social worker who is currently learning English paper-piecing at a local shop and
was not completely satisfied and happy. She had come across our post card and she and
her husband came to visit AQATS that first Sunday. She was so very excited - these
were the kind of quilts she saw in her mind and had no idea how to learn to make them,
and where to go to find great fabrics, etc. So I told her about our guild and what a nice
group of women they are and that she would find lots of people to talk to from newbies
to pros, and of course lots of opportunities to learn. I think she is planning to come to
our May meeting and hear Robbi's talk. As I was leaving, she said to me that this was a
life-changing day for her and that she had found something very special and exciting. I
heard later that evening, 15 minutes after I had left the gallery, she and her husband
bought Leesa Gawlik's quilt. It will be a complete circle if Carol Targum, the new
owner, joins our guild - an award given in honor of a lost member, to a quilt the artist
describes as a community effort, may bring us a new member who has been in search of
that which she could not name, but knew she was missing - a quilt community. I like
to think maybe Kathie had a hand in arranging those chance meetings:)

Cindy Friedman