What would you say were your major activities in SF fandom? (I.E., counting Hugo ballots, OEing SFPA, helping Guidry and Winston bamboozle me at Confederation, etc.)

It's been over 30 years since my first convention – RiverCon ’75, where we met. And I got propositioned by Joe Celko, not that that's at all unique. I've done a lot of stuff in that time –started a Shadow apa, been OE of SFPA, helped run over a dozen conventions (which I'm still

doing now – from the Potlatch auction which raised scholarship funds for Clarion West to being on the Hugo subcommittee *again*) and had a lot of fun with friends all the while. I don't think I want to start telling stories about teasing you – there are so many to choose from...

Quilts and birds, birds and quilts ... When did you get into quilts? What's the attraction of birds?

I got into quilts because the Austin area guild sponsored 2 hours of shows on the local PBS channel and I watched TV while I was walking on the treadmill. After a few shows, I said to myself, "I can do that" and proceeded to find out it was much harder than I thought. Then I found

the quilt-art list and got hooked. My mom taught me to use her sewing machine when I was 8, and she gave me a Singer Featherweight for a high school graduation present so I could make my own clothes. So I've been sewing forever, it seems like. Quilting was just the next step.

The attraction of birds is primarily that slowing down enough to watch them and really pay attention to them has the same effect on me as meditation. And it's less effort than sitting lotus

position.

Is there a quilting fandom? Is it at all like SF? What about conventions? Organizations?

Guy, I can't believe my ears. Yes, of course, there's a quilting fandom. We even have an official filker now, Ricky Tims, who is a big name pro in the quilting field and used to be a music director at a church so he's started doing quilting filks in the classes he teaches. He also has an online show. And the Houston International Quilt Show (the quilting world's equivalent of the Worldcon) has an attendance of 50,000 each year. Quilters have local guilds, and they all have annual retreats, and there are conventions and classes and shows all the time. Although most of them are small, and run by the local guild.

What's THIS bird on the back cover? What made you think of stitching him?

“Quantum Lake” was inspired by the local birds I see on my daily walk on the greenbelt. The big one is a Great Blue Heron and they are very common here in the Seattle area. They love the water, can be seen flying overhead and aren't particularly scared by people. They spend a lot of time standing still in one spot waiting for a fish to swim by so they can have a snack.