Many quilters and guilds might not have even heard of the Northern California Quilt Council (NCQC). It is an organization that has been active for many years. Among their very many projects, they sponsor a twice yearly Meet the Teachers get together where teachers and lecturers and quilt guild representatives (and I think shop owners) get together to attend a presentation of lecturers and workshops that are available for the California area. The guild representatives sit and listen to very short speeches by teachers of what they have available and the guild representatives visit the various booths to book teachers for future gigs.
They also sponsor a Zoom presentation in July for teachers so the representatives can see what is available from teachers both inside and outside California for either in person or Zoom workshops and lectures.
I couldn’t make the date earlier in the year, so I signed up for the July Zoom date which is next Wednesday morning.
There seems to be some kind of whammy put upon me regarding this event. Something always is going wrong. The first time I attended I thought I could do an extemporaneous talk and show some of my quilts. I got up on stage and started talking and in a blink of an eye someone yanked the microphone out of my hands after I had barely gotten my name and the fact that I was a hand worker out of my mouth. It seemed my three minutes were up and the guild representatives sitting in the audience were probably thinking who is this unprofessional yahoo anyway. Needless to say I was totally embarrassed and didn’t get any bookings.
The second time I attended I was prepared with a script, appropriate samples, and a speech timed out to the three minutes allotted to me. I got up on stage, got started, and someone fell off the stage and interrupted the whole proceeding. They had to call 911 for help and, of course, when everything got started again, no one was listening to me and again, it resulted in no bookings.
The third time (yes I tried again) was during Covid lockdown. We did the first Zoom meeting I think everyone, both teachers and guilds, had ever done and of course it did not run very smoothly. I was prepared with a PowerPoint presentation, timed to three minutes, but when it was my turn, I forgot to share my screen, panicked, and couldn’t get it restarted. So I just talked, blithered really, and forgot to state most of the important info about my lectures and workshops. But I did get some bookings from local guilds after restrictions were lifted and we could gather again.
Something always seemed to go wrong. Last year I got up on stage and the microphone ran out of batteries so I had to wait while the organizers found some replacements. Earlier in the year, I signed up to do an in person demo of foundation piecing for crazy quilts. Again the jinx hit me when I got there 10 minutes before the start time due to traffic and a pelting rain storm. I threw my samples and handouts on the table. Then I set up my quilt rack with some help from my table partner and started talking and did not stop until the 90 minutes was up. See my Substack The 8 Minute Demo for the details.
Well this time I was determined to break the jinx and thought I had it made in the shade. I had my PowerPoint all set up in advance, my script written out and timed to three minutes, and I had practiced a couple of times during the past week. Then this morning I thought I would change one of the photos in the PowerPoint presentation. I went to the file and the computer stated that I couldn’t access it. After a little investigating it seems I hadn’t updated the program recently (like a year) and Microsoft was getting cranky. So this morning I tried to update it and jumped through so many hoops it took me all day of nursing the computer to download the current programs. Then it still wouldn’t let me open the PowerPoint because of some kind of weirdness. I gave up and started all over again and did a new presentation. Woe is me. Maybe I can get through the Zoom meeting without losing the audio, forgetting to share my screen and panicking, or having spotty Internet connections. I have given up all control and am relying on the computer gods to help me out.
So say a little prayer for me on Wednesday morning. I wonder what will happen this time.