Oh, I’ve heard this expression before, but never heard it used by fiber artists until I attended the Open House @ SEFAA over the weekend. SEFAA is an alliance of the sewing, quilting, spinning, weaving, knitting and any other fiber related folks in the Atlanta area. The different organizations that make up SEFAA held live demonstrations on Sunday afternoon and the public was invited. I was fascinated by the nuno (laminate) felting demonstration that greeted me as I walked in the door. The artist exhibiting has her work in the American Craft Council Shows (she’s that good). But anyway, it was during the demo chitchat that another fiber felter made the comment about how she felt she’d finally found her tribe at SEFAA simply because there weren’t that many felting artists around.
I can so totally relate. In my day job as a librarian, I am often the only one in the school building. Sometimes I’m fortunate to be assigned a parapro with actual library experience and that definitely makes the job more enjoyable. I attend most, if not all, inservice meetings, mainly so I can be with my tribe (or fellow librarians).
It’s the same with quilting. Until our move two years ago, I was an active part of two very different quilt guilds. One is simply too far away. The other guild changed the meeting schedule and it conflicts with my weekend therapy dog visits. It’s a choice I made to do therapy dog work over quilt guild meetings (and I’d do it again), but I sorely miss my quilty peeps.
So now the search is on for a nearby quilt guild, especially since I moved the day job closer to home. I discovered that one group actually meets at SEFAA, so I’ll probably be there on Thursday.
Come Stitch With Me, LLC 