Pat Sloan what a blast the trip to South Africa was!

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Thursday, August 02, 2012

Pat Sloan what a blast the trip to South Africa was!

I am home from South Africa and All I can say is WOW! I will be writing a series of posts journal style.. with my thoughts and photos from my whirlwind trip.... hang on...

I started my trip to the International Quilt Conference Africa last Tuesday afternoon from Dulles International Airport, which is about 10 minutes from my house. (airplane not mine, I just love noseart!)

Meeting me from their connections was

Susan Brubaker Knapp,
Cynthia England and her husband Warren,
Jodie Barrows with her husband Steve and son Tucker,
and Kim Brunner.

The flight is long... very very long.

The first leg is 7 to 8 hours to Dakar where we did a refueling at about 2:30 am OUR time. Try waking up at 2:30 with all the lights on and 300 people with you that you don't know... and you didn't get to brush your teeth yet.. ha! Yep.. it's THAT fun!

All the people in our section were very cool. Including two church groups.. one adults going to build a church, and one set of teens going to do the same somewhere else.

Next was another 7 hours to Johannesburg South Africa... it felt like we'd been on the plane for days...

Getting OFF the plane was the highlight of this leg of our trip... know what I mean..wink!

It was about 6pm South Africa time when we landed. All our bags arrived safely and as we got ready to meet our hosts. BUT first we found this BEADED Elephant.. FULL size at the airport.

And who did I see talking it's photo? But my buddy ...Jennifer Keltner the executive editor of American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine!

Next we turned around to find Tony from APQS Longarm company.. (the George and Millie people).. he was going to be there to work their booth.

We rounded the corner and was greated by our great host Owen Calvery from IQFAfrica. Yeah!

The convention is at the Emperor's Palace in Johannesburg. We dropped our stuff and headed to the center area for some dinner with the whole gang!

This my FIRST trip below the equator, it's winter in South Africa and they decorated!

Note the snowflakes and the hat/scarf on the statue

yep.. we were goofballs after that many hours!

Susan and I explored a bit (yes we DID notice the scarf was not covering him that well)

Here is Barb taking a photo of me taking a photo of her

you know Barb.. as in Barb and Mary of Me and My sister

Lots of fun street performers that night...

isn't she cute? We really enjoyed the vibe at the Emperor's Palace.. it was exciting to finally be here for the show!

This is the front of our hotel, taken Thursday when it was light out. The hotel is very modern and they took great care of us.

This lobby was the "heart" of our life for the week. Behind you can see the dining area for breakfast (included and AMAZING!).. and these sofa's were our meet up place each night. Free wifi and lots of fantastic chat amongst the teachers occurred here.

Thursday was show set up day. In order to recover our jet lag we didn't really have to be anywhere specific at any specific time, which was wonderful! By about 11am we had consumed much coffee from these fabulous machines and felt ready to explore the show layout while set up was going on.

Much of this day was spent meeting the staff, chatting, learning and then getting my own classroom set up for Day 1 of teaching.

That evening a group of us went to Tribes for a dinner of traditional South African foods.This is Warren England, Cynthia's husband .. fun eh? We loved trying the foods and much sharing went on at each meal.

Oh.. did I tell you the WINE is amazing in South Africa?

PS - some photos swiped from Susan and some from IQFAfrica website.. see more by visiting both of them! Susan just posted several posts of the Safari they are on. Click her photos for a clearer image

PPs - Sometime tomorrow I'll post again... I'm still dragging a bit and it takes awhile to get the photos ready.. so watch for another post tomorrow sometime!

Posted by PatSloan at 03:31 PM | Permalink

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Hi Pat,I am enjoying the pics and reading about your trip. It reminds me of the fun we had in Ireland. Thanks

Posted by: Peggy McIntire | Sunday, August 05, 2012 at 11:57 AM

All the photos look so awesome.

Posted by: Beth | Sunday, August 05, 2012 at 07:44 AM

It was wonderful to attend your workshop! Glad to hear you enjoyed the rest of your trip. Hope someone shared some Amarula with you. I hope Melissa Perry has found the details of the local quilters guild in Pretoria.

Posted by: Danel Muller | Saturday, August 04, 2012 at 12:21 PM

Everyone I meet, quilters and non quilters, were amazing. Friendly, Helpful and very kind. I had a great time in South Africa!

Posted by: Pat Sloan | Saturday, August 04, 2012 at 11:35 AM

I am so glad that you enjoyed your visit and more important for you being to positive about our wonderful country.

Posted by: Marthie | Saturday, August 04, 2012 at 04:10 AM

So glad you enjoyed your trip. I just moved from USA to Pretoria South Africa (just out side of johanassburg) with my family in June. My husband company has him working here for 2 years. I was so excited for the quilt convention. I was not able to see you speak but my daughters (5 and 10) and I enjoyed the fabric shopping and all the beautiful quilts on display at the convention. South Africa is a great place to visit and to live. Hope you get a chance to come again. Looking forward to see more pictures of your trip.

Posted by: Melissa Perry | Saturday, August 04, 2012 at 03:27 AM