Somebody LOVES purple!

Where did all the purple go?

A child perusing my stash of fabric early this summer claimed we were out of purple. Where did it all go?

Where indeed!

Another lovely quilt show

Streetsboro Quilt Show 2013

Pattie got up early today to get us to the Streetsboro quilt show early enough to shop in Rosemary’s booth of vintage quilt tops before anybody else had a chance to paw through them.

Rosemary is a retired teacher who spends a lot of time perusing flea markets and antique shops for quilt tops that need someone to love them.  I make it a point every time I go to this show to stop in her booth and find a treasure to add to my collection.  Many I have quilted, but some are just treasures I wanted to bring home and have under my watchful eye for some future use.

Rosemary's booth of treasures!

Pattie thinks I always find the best thing in there and she only gets seconds, so I let her have at it in the booth before I made my choice today.  There were many lovely quilt tops to choose from and I was sorely tempted by more than one or two.  I only purchased one top, though, and that is a good thing.  I do have quite a collection already.  Pattie bought a lovely antique with fabric dating to the late 1880’s  I did not think to take pictures of our two finds.

This quilt show fills the church to bursting every year and is always a joy to attend.  I see many friends I haven’t seen in ages and I get to see lots of quilts I have done for my customers.  It is like a walk through memory lane.  I do so many quilts each year it is hard for me to remember all of them.  Often I will be standing in front of one, loving what I am looking at, feeling a familiar pull and when I read the tag I see I have quilted it.  I can’t explain it, and sometimes it is just plain weird but I don’t remember every face I see, so I guess it is normal to not remember a quilt.

I believe Pattie and I may have been very close to the first people through the door this morning, as not long afterwards I heard someone exclaim that “they are lined up out in the parking lot waiting to get in.”  I was happy we had arrived early enough for a parking spot.  Many were parking on the grass.

Emily and Laura each entered two quilts and received participation ribbons.  I was hoping they might place; they both did a lovely job on their quilts.

Emily and Laura's quilts, 2 each!

I won a ribbon with my recent quilting project that Pattie fondly calls “Argyle.”  I call it "A Pathway to No Where Can Still Be Interesting."  I got a blue ribbon for my efforts and a ribbon for Best Use of Color. 

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