Signature Quilt

I thought I had written a post about this quilt but find not.  My sister-in-law, Carole, went this fall to an auction that was held after her father's close companion passed away.  The lady's mother had been an artist so there was a lot of artwork and more especially quilts in the sale.  I believe the family had decided to keep a few of the quilts.

This quilt was dated 1950 and was embroidered with signatures of many people that Carole had known over the years from their farming community.  Included on the top were the signature of her mother and both paternal and maternal grandmothers.

The family decided to give the quilt to Carole.  It is a great example of signature quilts, 50's quilts which are rare and a great scrapbook containing many memories.

Trying to put this day off due to terrible snow and cold to good use by doing some sewing. 

I dug out Saturday and that has all blown in again.  And they are warning against going out today to shovel.  So I guess I will see what tomorrow brings.  Keep warm everyone. 

Catching up

Busy times at work with exams starting.  We have pressure put on to get the exams ready at least 5 days ahead while convincing the profs to help us along sometimes is a loosing battle.  What's a girl to do?  I guess just sit back and hope the copy machines are actually working and you don't get sick in the mean time.  Because we don't have a single bit of control. Ugh!

First a couple of pictures from the last Turk Lake Retreat with the Variable Stars this fall.



A beautiful quilt Carol Schon has been working on.  Love the colors.



I think this one was Carols as well. Recycles shirts at their best.



This is a t-shirt quilt I'm putting together for my trainer out of her college and softball t-shirts.

Last weekend was my mom's side of the family's Christmas party.  A coworker is also a cousin and her grandmothers home was right across the street from my grandmothers home.  My grandmothers home, owned by the bank, was torn down as soon as she passed away.  Sarah's grandmother's home, owned by her uncle, is slated to be demolished.  I suggested to her it was forth getting pictures  to preserve those memories.  So since I wasn't sure she would be able to get over and get pictures I stopped by on Sunday and took some.  Love the stone work and gingerbread trim.

Loved the round topped windows upstairs.

I have several retreats coming up, 1 in January, 2 in February and maybe a show in Indiana in March.

Guess that is enough for now.  Take care, enjoy your families!

New Venture

A friend and I have been talking lately.  She inherited a lot of collectibles from her mother.  And like I have so often seen and heard, it's just not possible to hang onto everything that you inherit.  Some people say you should just be happy with the memories that you have.  Anne inherited a lot of Lladro figurines.  Although nice, they are not something she wants to store. 

I got pulled into collecting by working my brother's estate sales and buying items that were left after the sale.  Those that were too pretty to let go, so I would buy them and then started selling at a flea market.  But this was a poor summer for doing fleas for me.  In June alone I had my trip to Ireland, the next weekend taking a bus load of women to Chicago for the international quilt show and then the next week my niece's wedding.  But that hasn't stopped me from buying at area estate sales.

So push has come to shove for both of us.  So this weekend we went to the Mega Mall and rented a show case.  We are hoping for a pretty reasonable monthly rent and secure space, maybe we can start getting rid of things.

 

 

Ann loaded in some items on Sunday.  I went and took measurements for the spaces to make a couple of display boards for smalls that might be in bags.  I hope this weekend to take a few things in as well.  We will see how this goes.  We have a 3 month contract and after that it is month by month.

AQS quit show in Grand Rapids

Well, it has only been about a month since the American Quilters Society show in Grand Rapids.  It is one of the large national shows held here and it's great that it's so close.  When the Grand Rapids guild visited one of the Capitol City Guild meetings asking for volunteers, I thought why now.  I volunteer for 2 1/2 hours and get free admission ($14) so why not? 

I met Friday night with my roommate from my June trip to Ireland.  Mickey and her friend decided that Grand Rapids was closer than Des Moines so they came to the GR show.  After work Friday I hot footed it to GR to meet them for supper.  I got to meet her friend and here about her extra week in Northern Ireland after the rest of us headed home.  It was good to see her again.

 

 

Following are a few of the quilts I enjoyed see.

 

This quilt was in the area where I "white gloved" AQS author's quilts area.  Bought the pattern.

 



Where has the time gone...

Can't believe September is already here.

The first part of August I and my mother went down to Bourbonnais Illinois to see my nephew and his wife, Darryl and Anna.  We got there about 6 pm on Friday. Saturday we had lunch with Anna's grandmother and parents.  The grandmas hit it off at the wedding 2 years ago.

After lunch we went to see Jennifer and Leif in their new apartment in Chicago.  Nice newly refurbished space.

When we headed down to Navy Pier because the tall ships were in town.  We walked the pier and found some of the ships out sailing.  We had supper outside and I was completely entranced by looking at the skyscrapers and all their lights.  It was just very magical.  I think we left at 10 am that morning and didn't get back to Darryl & Anna's until 10 pm.  Long day, but we really enjoyed it.

When the next weekend I volunteered to white glove at a national quilt show in Grand Rapids.  As it happened my roommate from Ireland, Mickey Donahue and a friend, Karen, were in GR for the show.  So I went up Friday right after work and we were able to go out to dinner and have a good visit.  Got to hear all about Mickey's extra week in Ireland.

 Following are a few photos from the show.  Dennis came down and took me out to lunch after my white glove shift was over.  On the way back to the convention center we stumbled across a small antique show where I found a few treasures,  then we went back to the show and had a look at the show and vendors.

Day 14, June 14, Ireland

Today was our last full day in Ireland.  Today was a day totally on our own.  Yesterday in the drive around I spotted a city market, St. Georges, which has food, fruits and vegetables, clothing and antiques.  A couple of us wanted to do the Titanic Belfast and also the antique market.  St. Georges was about 10 blocks from our hotel and the Titanic Belfast was even further.  So we decided to walk to the market and then take a cab from there.

The walk was a pleasant one.  I was intent on finding something from the antique dealers to mark the end of the trip.  I ended up buying 6 silver tea spoons and a silver sugar spoon for 7 pounds and a cast iron boot that was a pincushion.

primula vialii (herbaceous perennial)

pouring in tomato sauce to paella
 

Then we took a taxi out to the Titanic Belfast.  This is not so much a museum, as it doesn't actually have any artifacts from the Titanic.  It explores the shipyard and the building of the ship, boomtown Belfast at that time,  All around it was a very interesting exhibit, in a really cool building.

 

After we were done at the Titanic Belfast we caught a cab that took us to Deann's for lunch. Evidently this is the restaurant of a famous chef that has great lunches for 6 pounds 50 pence.  So we took the cab and he delivered us to the door.  I had a very good mushroom risotto the other ladies has fish and chips.

When lunch was done they wanted to go back to the hotel to rest as tomorrow will be a very early day to get to the airport.  So we walked back and parted ways.  I wanted to still look around more.  I walked to city hall and then found my way to Castlecourt Shopping Center.

I passed a nice covered shopping street on my way to the shopping center.  This reminded me of some I have visited in London.

I walked around for a couple of hours and then headed back to the hotel.  A bunch (6 or 7) had decided to go across the street from the hotel for supper.  Good meal and inspiring tile work.

 

After supper all, well most of Bonnie Hunter's group met up in the piano bar at the Europa and has one last cider.

I and Bonnie Hunter

I and roommate Mickey Donahue



Then it was off to bed.  No matter what time our flight was tomorrow, 8 am, 11:30 or 3:30 we had to be on the bus at 5 am to head to Dublin airport.  That meant getting up at 3 am to get dressed and double check that everything was packed.  Mickey was staying another week so she got to sleep while I tried to quietly get around.  Then it was a 7 hour wait at the airport for the flight home.

All in all it was a great way to see a good portion of Ireland for the first time.  People couldn't have been more helpful or friendly.

 

Day 13, June 13, Lisburn and Belfast

This morning we headed from Dublin to Belfast, in Northern Ireland.  It was about an hour trip, but we stopped in Lisburn at the Linen Center and Museum.  We were there a good bit before our tour was scheduled to we grabbed lunch on the recommendation of a local and then I went to hit 3 charities shops I had spotted.  At one charity shop I found a shirt to buy to bring home.  I will take it apart as Bonnie Hunter does and use the fabric in a quilt to remember this trip. 

I also went down the street  to a clothing store and picked up a couple of new tops.

 

 

The tour of the Linen Center was very interesting.  There was even a docent spinning flax into thread.  Bonnie and I think Celine got a chance to try it.

 

Then we headed out for Belfast.  Noel decided rather than doing the panoramic tour himself, he picked up a tour guide he knew to give his local perspective on Belfast and "the troubles".

 

We saw many of the famous murals that exist in Belfast.

 

 

 

This was a whole street of homes that were slated for destructions.



 

Last building we went by was the new Titanic experience.  Quite a cool new building.