Quilt Show!

Western Reserve Quilters Anonymous

Over the weekend I went to a small local quilt show with my friend, Pattie. I had never heard of this small guild and I am glad someone sent me an email to tell me about the show. I saw a lot of people there that I know and I saw several quilts in the show that I had quilted for customers. It’s always nice to see my name as the quilter.

The show was in the basement of a church. There was little room to hang quilts so many of them were draped over pews and chairs and other creative displays. There was enough room for several vendors and they had a stage with demonstrations of quilting and other quilt related quilting procedures people always want to have more knowledge of.

My favorite quilt was a wonderful old quilt that is a Trip around the World, or maybe Boston Commons since it was set rectangle style instead of diamond style. I love looking at the old patterns in the vintage fabric.

September 12, 2013

Just another day…or IS it?

I have been mulling for two years now about the year my mother turned 59.  I heard about it for two years.  The year I turned 58 I started thinking about that year of her life.  I wanted to think about it the year I turned 58 because the year she turned 58 she thought she was turning 59.  She went on all year about being 59.  It must have been a big deal, the last year of that decade for her. I am pretty sure I was not the only person who listened to her rant over that 365 day period.

The next birthday when she actually turned 59 was a very exciting one for her.  She had another year to be 59.  Imagine getting a whole year back in your life. I swear; she was so excited I heard about it frequently over the next 365 days.

Not much rattled my mother.  She was always prepared for any outcome.  Plan A was not good enough to bank on, you had to have at least a plan B as well. Imagine how silly she must have felt when she counted backwards to 1918 in 1977 and realized she had not counted backwards on her last birthday to verify her actual age. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt for probably not actually feeling silly.  1976 was not the best year for my family.

Turning 60 is not a big deal anymore.  Back in the day living past 49 was an achievement.  I don’t feel attached to the numbers my years on earth represent.  I still feel inside like I am 18.  Maybe it’s the pain pills I get to take every day to keep the arthritis at bay. Maybe it’s just the way it is.  I don’t move as fast, I don’t squat or kneel since my knee surgery and I don’t work as hard as I did 20 years ago.  But then 20 years ago I was only 40 and my mother was still here to ask me "how old was (he/she?)", the aged person I was griping about who had been driving the car ahead of me and had annoyed me with the fact they were old.

Age is relative.  I’m looking forward to this next decade.  It’s just another day...or IS it?

Here’s looking at ya Ma!  I sure miss you on days like today. ;-D

More lazy summer days

Coshocton quilt show

The girls and I went to see a very nice guild run show in the charming town of Coschocton, Ohio over the weekend.  There were lots of things going on so the trip didn’t have to be 4 hours in the car for just looking at quilts.  Not that I would mind that.  I have traveled further in a day for the very same thing. 

The show is always a delight.  It always revolves around a theme and this year’s theme was Red and White.  The quilts are always lovely to look at, but the reason I love the show so much is because of the ribbons. They are hand- made each year and depict the theme.  I should have taken more photos specifically of the ribbons, but I did not think of that.

I handed my camera over to Laura for her own pleasure as she was bugging her sister immediately upon entering the doors to take pictures of things.  I figured the better part of valor was to just let Emily enjoy the show without indulging her little sister’s whims.

Right next door to Coshocton is a place called Roscoe Village.  They were having their Canal Days celebration this weekend as well.  We drove through their little main street but the shop keepers were not open yet, they were sweeping the sidewalks and vendors were readying their canopy tops to set up their little stores on the road.

The town square of Coshocton had a Civil War thing going on . We did see Abe Lincoln posing and quite a few young ladies in their beautiful gowns texting in their boredom waiting for the last day of their misery to be over.  By the time we reached Abe, he had escaped to the shadow of the huge town hall for a brief respite from the heat. There were only 6 vendors set up on the lawn of the courthouse so we were quickly back in the car and on our way home.

We did find a restaurant in the Buehler’s grocery store and that was where we ate our lunch.  It was reminiscent of an old fashioned diner like the old Denny’s.

A good day was had by all.  Laura spent the rest of her day after we got home editing the many pictures she took of all the beautiful quilts.

Quilt retreat in Amish country

Recharge, relax, revisit:

Recently I went on a rare for me quilt retreat.  Sometimes the cost of the outing makes me pause, but the cost is small for the amount of fun in return. 

The retreat was planned by several of my longarm friends for us to get to spend some time together and the idea was to replace the days of Quilting with Machines that we had gone to for the last 6 years.  I don’t miss QwM but I sure miss the evenings there when all the work for the day was done and I got to spend a few minutes with these splendid comrades who were retired in the bar as I staggered back to my room, tired from my day in the registration booth.  I must say, retreat in Amish country was far more fun for me.

Going shopping in the rain

I talked my dear friend, Pattie, into going.  It has been 4 years of cajoling her but I finally got her to tamp down the panic long enough to get her into the car and to the amazing house in Charm where 9 of us spent 4 very busy days sewing. I will admit there was booze and food and fabric intermingled with the rotary cutting, stitching and stepping back to admire our progress we hung on the design wall.

my project on design wall

An interesting pass time for me is seeing how others organize their getaway stuff and how they work.  I sat for hours sewing.  This alone is worth the price of admission. When I go I prepare by planning several quilts, figuring out the instructions for each, cutting all the fabric I need and putting each project into a container for ease of transport and keeping it all organized.  I must be organized. I won’t go into the other peoples prep.  Pattie did like the idea of “quilt in a box” and prepared several for herself. She even surprised me with strips of fabric for a black and white project for us to do together.

result of one of Pattie's shopping forays (she tried to hide it in the car)

I did not get any particular project done but I got many parts of many projects to some stage of doneness.  I was satisfied. I brought a bag of blocks along and sewed them into rows then into a quilt top so I did seem to have ‘finished’ something.

The best fun of the retreat is the shopping.  There are quite a few shops in the area we stayed but I only visited two. Pine Tree quilt shop in Kidron and Mrs. Millers dry goods, which was next door to the house where we stayed.

Gayla and the poor little homeless kitten

The cat on the back porch was somebodies pet and such an opportunistic little devil.  He came right up on the porch of the house and crawled into any lap that would not reject him.  He looked so much like Toby and he acted like him as well.  He was very much at home sleeping on the porch furniture.  When new people arrived to stay in the house behind ours, he deserted us for them. Gayla was so certain he was an abandoned kitty but he knew exactly what he was doing.  Apparently Amish cats like retreats too!

Perfect end to day of storms that missed us