The annual benefit auction begins later this month, so I’m posting on several membership advantages that I’ve particularly valued from among the wide range of resources offered by this organisation. One special interest group is the Multi-Day Challenge SIG
I’ve been designing and making textile/fiberart for many years, and only rarely am I stumped with absolutely no idea of what I’ll do next, and only occasionally get stuck mid project. Back in the late 80s, though, I found it very helpful to join a group of quilters who were experimenting beyond traditional geometric P&Q, and moving into more personally inspired textile art. That group, Quilt Explorations, met monthly to accept the next challenge offered by one of our 15 or so members, and show and critique what we’d all done with the previous month’s challenge. By 1993, when we left town, Q.E. had turned into a critique group only, as most members were now following our own inspiration paths and didn’t need prompts provided by someone else’s challenge to create our art.
Today, with this post in mind, I googled “quilting challenges” and about 3rd or 4th down the page I found this an interesting blog, Online Quilting Magazine.com and read the article about challenges which includes this succinct summary of the whole challenge thing – “Joining a quilting challenge can be a fantastic way to hone your skills, gain new techniques and have fun with others who share your passion for quilting. As with any challenge, the main goal is to encourage you to try new things and branch out from your normal routine.”
SAQA runs at least two challenges a year. During the pandemic, 2021, with heaps more unstructured time at home than I was used to having, I realised this was a gift of time to explore new things in textile fibreart. In addition to joining StitchClub, later that year I took part in the 100 day SAQA Reboot Challenge. In 2019 I’d taken part for a while in a 30 day one, but got distracted and didn’t stay the course. However, with so much time it was easy to keep to my plan for 100 days. SAQA’s challenges are individual – the participant sets their own agenda, does at least something on it every day, and posts about it on that day’s album on the challenge’s private FB page. Part of participating is giving helpful or encouraging comments to others for what they’re doing. Over the course of those 100 days I made 100 x 3.25inch square mounted samples, and blogged several times about how I was doing, using the title “Very Small Pieces” https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=6891 through to “Very Small Pieces,#14” https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=7096 and the final one, “After the 100 Day Thing” showing some favourites from the 100! https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=7124
Handled by volunteer coodinators, such challenges use little of SAQA’s financial resources, but they do rely on the efficient ever-ready technical backup and support of the several salaried SAQA staff – my thanks to you all! @saqaart