The 4th Annual Guild Meeting (AGM)
Hosted by: Jinny Alexander
When: June 1997
Where: Rochester, NY

"Out-of-towners" started arriving in Rochester Friday night. It´s always fun to meet old friends and make new ones at the AGM. We all had the opportunity to do that at dinner Friday night. You could feel the excitement! Those who had never been to an AGM before just couldn´t wait for Saturday morning to see the quilling and meet the whole group. Already questions were flying around the room.

Saturday morning the travelling exhibit was unpacked and set up (it arrived back from California the day before the AGM!) Quillers started arriving and getting up their displays. It was awfully difficult to know what to look at first. Finally Jinny managed to get us into our seats. We had a speaker on calligraphy, and how it could be incorporated with quilling then we had a speaker on powder and stencil embossing and how that could be incorporated with quilling. Boy were we full of new ideas by lunchtime! After lunch the meeting was opened to the public. The Rochester group had done their homework when it came to publicity. There were quillers, people who were anxious to see the quilling and people who had never seen quilling. As always, we spent time with each other showing each other all of our little techniques and secrets, all the while answering questions from people who had come in off the street. It seemed like every time you walked around the room you would see another piece of quilling you missed on the first trip.

After reluctantly packing up all our quilling, as well as the exhibit, we piled into cars for a very special treat. Arrangements had been made for us to have a private viewing of two magnificent quilled reliquaires at the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph. The reliquaires had been taken down from the walls of the chapel where they usually hang, and laid on tables where we were able to view them closely and in good light. When I fist looked at them, I had to look away, their beauty literally brought tears to my eyes. I can´t even begin to imagine the love and devotion that went into these exquisite works of art.

In order to share this wonderful experience with you I´ve included copies of pictures taken by Julian Alexander which he graciously let me borrow. Each little compartment is said to contain a relic of a saint. If you are ever planning a visiting the Rochester area, you should arrange to view these beautiful pieces.

As usual, we all had a wonderful time together."