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April 28, 2012
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. The canine and I have been back from our walk for a bit, I’ve had my coffee and yogurt and am getting ready for another day at our glorious show. It is a great morning for a walk. Chilly but no wind-once you get moving it’s no problem. The dog was scampering like a puppy-especially when I would not allow him to chase all the bunnies we encountered. Spent the whole day at the museum yesterday. Didn’t get to walk around much-that’s on today’s agenda. Talked with lots of ladies-it’s interesting how you can chat with a complete stranger about quilts as though you’ve known one another for a long time. Is that one of the things that makes quilts glorious? Lots of those I spoke with about the fabrics, mentioned that they don’t need to buy any more fabric because they have so much […]
April 27, 2012
Good morning all, Mary Ellen here. Soon I’ll be heading out to meet a friend at Timmy’s for breakfast and then to the museum for the first day of our show “Quilts, Glorious Quilts”. Indeed they are. I am awed every time by the work of our members, and a few non-members who also join in the show. (Gotta rope them into the fold!) Last evening’s preview party was wonderful. Kelly, our quilt show chair, finished her remarks with thoughts on what makes a quilt glorious. She graciously agreed to give me a copy of her speech so I can share it here. Of course she was a little busy (LOL) last night, so I don’t have it yet. In the next few days I’ll post it here, so we all can think a bit about our own ideas on “what makes a quilt glorious?” Does it have to be […]
April 25, 2012
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. It’s almost show time! I was out at the museum yesterday, dropping off a few things. I took a quick spin around our show; it is almost ready. You got a bit of a peek from Marija’s post earlier this week, but it’s much better in person. Love seeing everyone’s work up close. The new museum exhibit of Bobbie Fuhrmann’s life work (a former guild member) is quite impressive too. Beautiful lace and quilts in one woman’s work. She was amazingly talented. I never met Bobbie, except now through her legacy. Alice Bachraty’s exhibit (our guild’s founding mother) is worth the trip too. We can all appreciate Alice through our participation in the guild she loved so much. Today, I believe, is judging day. Personally the awards mean little to me-I pick out my own best of show and favorites. I have always loved and […]
April 24, 2012
Hello all, it’s ME. Just in case we ever get to dig in the dirt here’s something for the gardeners among you. Got my shoes muddy this morning looking around to see what survived the snow yesterday. The trillium which were gorgeous 2 days ago, are looking pretty sad this morning. And I think the jack-in-the-pulpits are a lost cause, I’m afraid. The later daffodils are iffy. What a strange weather year we’re having. I’ve heard it said that gardeners are eternal optimists, since we don’t usually see the fruits of our labors right away. I have a coffee mug that says “A garden is never finished.” Ain’t that the truth?! We’ve seen quilt gardens before-love the plantings arranged to look like quilt blocks. I think a feature telling exactly what plants were used to execute the garden is new though. I went to Nancy Zieman’s new website looking for […]
April 24, 2012
Hi everyone, I am catching a few minutes this morning, before heading to the Museum again to finish setting up the Quilt Show – just to show you some great photo-updates on how is everything going. Even though everyone knows it is a lot of work we really do have fun too! And despite the fact that I have been involved in show set-up for years now, it never ceases to amaze me how it all happens… It starts of course from great work of our Registration committee, working so well to accept all your entries in such an organized manner and immediately sort quilts by sizes or categories – making our job at set up so much easier – THANK YOU LADIES!! Then on Sunday – here is what we start from: Big, main room of the museum – looking kinda empty, scaffolding ready… Piles of bed-size quilts […]
April 23, 2012
Hello again. I have too many hobbies for the amount of time I have to spend. (and I have the supplies to go with them!) Just found out that my retired painting teacher is coming out of retirement and will again be offering classes. I haven’t done much painting in about 5 years. I think it might be the Irish in me, but I had just been thinking about how much I used to enjoy painting, wishing I could find another good teacher, when her letter arrived in the mail inviting me back to her class! Somewhat spooky, but not the first time something like that has happened. I also enjoy rubber stamping-mostly making cards for myself to use and for Operation Write Home. Different, but related color skills, than those used in quilt making. Found this blog post at a site I’ve followed for a while now. I love, […]
April 21, 2012
Hello all, Mary Ellen again. I’ve been running like a chicken with no head (can you youngsters picture that, or is it now one of those old expressions with no visual?) these days. I’ll bet any of you involved in getting the quilt show up and ready are likewise. No time for much of a post today, but here is a link to a slideshow of quilts by Robbi Joy Eklow. Nothing I would ever make, but I love them, especially the Steampunk series. They are fused, artsy quilts in great vibrant hand dyed fabrics. Enjoy! More time tomorrow for blogging, especially if it is still raining. I need to transplant the things from two flower beds around the big maple that is coming down. Planning on tomorrow and Monday–but I have heard rumblings of the S word for Monday. Really? Aren’t we done with that yet? TTFN
April 20, 2012
Hello all, ME once more. “Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you don’t let other people spend it for you.” That’s a quote from John Dryden, English poet of 1600’s. Like all the other coins in our life, there is never enough time. How are you spending your time these days? (Is this quote the origin of our expression?) Are your quilt show things done or at least getting there? Here’s hoping you get to decide how to spend your time. I think that one of the best things about retirement is that most of those choices are now mine, not my employer’s. Now there are lots of times when I can say “no” to things that would take away from my time. Here’s a link to some very nice free quilt […]
April 18, 2012
…the humming of the sewing machines? Everyone busy, busy finishing the quilts for the Quilt Show? It seems a bit quiet here on our blog – where is everyone? 🙂 Well, I for one am “glued” to my sewing machine chair, every afternoon after work! Heck – the only reason I am writing this is because I finished work, waiting for hubby to be done, so in the meantime I can give myself a little luxury of web-browsing…and of course then I find interesting things that I have to share! 🙂 First, since we are all in the “finishing” mode (finishing quilts that is), I found few very useful things related to machine quilting. This blog is the one I mentioned a while ago and it has these really neat “Thread Talk from my sewing machine” occasional posts – lots of great inspiration of amazing free-motion quilting and then a […]
April 17, 2012
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. The oldest quilt in the Western World…how old is it? It’s been dated as between 1360-1400 AD. Where from? Sicily, Italy. Where is it now? In the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. What about it? Known as the Tristan quilt, it’s a wholecloth quilt, telling the story of Tristan and Isolde. Go to the link for a photo and its full story. Amazing to me that it is still around, in pretty good shape considering its age and past circumstances. That prompted me to spend a bit of time around the internet, looking for old quilts. Wow-what a mass of information is out there! I went to YouTube and searched for “history of quilts”. Too many results to summarize, but if this topic is of interest to you too, give that search a try. The history of quilts in general, the history of quilt […]