You know, I actually work really hard at sewing although you'd never realize it based on my blog posts. As I busily lined up another American Sewing Guild program recently, I realized that I've never talked about hobnobbing with the famous in the sewing world. I've gotten to do that this year (2012), largely due to LUCK. The right call at the right time. (yes, me! I was really suffering on what to do for programs there for awhile so this was a HUGE blessing. Rejection becomes very discouraging rather quickly.)
My local sewing guild has monthly meetings (except December) and has a program at EACH AND EVERY monthly meeting. Guess who is in charge of lining up programs???? Yeah....
And, I'm well into my 3rd year of doing this (and agreed to a 4th and final year next year....which is now so I am almost DONE!!!). I think I've done okay with it. We are really blessed to have some *terrific* local talent. But, you do feel guilty hitting people up within the guild. After awhile you begin to feel that they see you coming, and that they want to go run and hide because they know that you are going to ask them to do a program presentation.
We have several local quilt stores and a few far-flung general fabric stores, and I think all the store owners would like to go hide behind the counter when they see me coming....just in case I ask them to do a program. I have tried to be thoughtful, and only ask our newsletter advertisers (aka the store owners) to do a program about every 2 years or so. And that does seem like a lot--I really, really understand that by the end of the day they probably would much, much rather go home rather than go out to do a presentation. It's a long day. I appreciate that. We suffer from the same things here at The Sewing Spot. The flip side to this is that our guild is generally very supportive of our advertisers. However, you can never really predict (and I'm too much of a lady to ask) how supportive (dollars!!!) the guild is. I *think* that our store owners have benefited through sales either at their store and/or at our meetings because of the programs they've given.
See? There's a trend here. I am either the most loved member of our sewing guild (because of the GREAT programs I bring in) or the most feared (because I will ask YOU to do one!). Really, I am laughing at myself here although it is true, I do believe!
So, the point is, you ask? This year (2012!!!) has been an ultra busy year for me with sewing largely because of the sewing programs I've arranged this year. We've had presentations about:
- sewing blogs (I wonder where that idea came from???)
- PaintStiks (compliments of one of our wonderful advertisers!)
- Velomuffs (by one of our ASG members with the coolest business!)
- Fabric Origami (a nifty accessory for home dec :)
- The Lifecycle of a Custom Gown (the gown samples were a big WOW! and the topic super interesting--thanks to another ASG member)
See? Don't we have some terrific local talents??!
Plus, this year (actually in 2012) I was so blessed to be hooked up with Rae Cumbie, Sarah Veblen, Mary Ray, Pamela Ptak, and Linda Stewart!!!! If your brain needs a nudge, they've all been in Threads magazine, written books, published patterns and/or teach. They also taught classes here via Artisan Sewing Classes. I couldn't take them all, but did enjoy Sarah's class. More on that in another post! Time to play catch up on the blog...Anyway--
And next year Susan Khalje will be one of our program speakers! How cool is that????? She was here earlier this year in April. I didn't get to take her French jacket class, but did enjoy her one day handsewing class!
It has been so wonderful to have had talent from outside our area come here and speak to the guild. I'm sure it's been a relief to our members and advertisers, too. (Because I didn't have to ask many of them to give a program at a meeting this year....but NEXT year is a different story!) Now you know where all my sewing time goes--lining up sewing speakers for our guild programs! hahaha I wonder what excuse I'll have to offer in the future since my time is up serving as programs chair???
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