My First IGMA Show

IGMA is the International Guild of Miniature Artisans, an organization dedicated to giving support and recognition to miniature artisans who can join IGMA as members, and if they desire to, apply for Artisan status, and then go on to Fellow status.  For each of these steps, they must submit work which is then judged and if they don't earn the title, they are encouraged to try again and are constructively instructed on what would help them on a second attempt.  So the work of these folks is truly a joy to see.  We ended up spending pretty much the entire day in the show and, for me, especially, it was wonderful meeting several women who are members of the Yahoo petitpointers group that I belong to.  They were all so warm and welcoming!  I found various and sundry things to purchase - no treasures like I have sometimes bought in years past, but I'm happy with everything I bought.  And Chris bought 2 very nice pieces and then, when we ended up staying for the live auction, he bid on and won a beautiful wood bowl.  The auction was great fun - it and the auctions following IGMA's other events are their main sources of fund-raising and the artisans and other folks all donate beautiful, beautiful pieces to be auctioned off.

I took pictures of each of the petitpointers I met and am posting them here just because they made my day so very pleasant and I always post pictures of the highlights of my trips.  These ladies were definitely highlights! :)


On the left is Christa Goes who came all the way from the Netherlands for the show.  She does beautiful Hardanger embroidery on 54 count linen which you see pictured here on the right.  She also had petitpoint on her table but I was especially enchanted with the Hardanger because that is something I've been trying to work up my nerve to try for a long time.  You really should click on the Hardanger picture to get a better idea of the detail she manages to put into each piece.  A delightful young woman and I'm glad I got to meet her!

And, this is Pat Richards on the left and a small sampling of her work on the right.  She makes wonderful upholstered furniture, the little rugs you see that I believe are created by a method called penny felting.  She also creates beautiful, and I mean beautiful petitpoint pieces and submitted a 1/12th scale framed picture done in stump work embroidery - a form of raised embroidery.  Needless to say, it did very well as a fund raiser!  Oh, and I mustn't forget to mention the cats - I think she must do these every now and then for fun because they certainly fun to look at.  They are very lightly stuffed I think so they look like they've just sort of collapsed into the chair.  I need to think of a perfect spot to display one because they make me smile when I look at them.

I also got to meet Peggy Meyers (I think it's 2 "e"s) in the blue jacket and visit with Annelle Ferguson in the black and white who is considered one of the "queens" of the petitpoint world.  I have visited with her briefly at several other shows and she is delightful with her gentle southern drawl and her great sense of humor.  And that's me and Annelle and I guess you can tell what a good time I was having!  And I can't believe I didn't get a picture of Corky and am just real put out with myself!  She stopped by our table at breakfast and stayed for a nice visit and then we both ended up out in the lobby while I ate lunch and we had another visit.  She is a delight and I'm just sorry I didn't get a picture of her to share.  She is a hoot! :)

It dawned on me after Chris and I pretty much packed everything up tonight for our trip back to DC tomorrow that I didn't take pictures yet of what we both bought.  So I will do that maybe tomorrow night or Monday and try and get them posted too.

Tomorrow, we leave here in time to get to NYC by 10:30 when we'll join a Megan, a friend of Chris's.  She lives in Brooklyn and we're all going to join up for brunch at ... wait for it ... Artisanal!  It will be delicious I'm sure and pretty darned fabulous.

And, now - good night!