Midwest Travels--Part I

So I flew into St. Louis on Wednesday night and after a bit of a late start Thursday--no matter--my sister Kathy and I got on the road.  We drove through downtown St. Louis to reach our highway and took a short detour so Kathy could show me the huge Cavalia tents practically at the foot of the federal building she works in.  This very popular "Cirque de Soleil" type show with horses has been held over twice in St. Louis.

Kathy and her daughter had seen the show from the front row--as a spectacular gift from her roommate--and raved about it.  Then we drove along the waterfront so I could get some pics of the St. Louis Arch, Gateway to the West.  Along the way, we saw a horse with some different colors:

This Percheron with pretty painted hooves and his carriage were awaiting some fares at the base of the Gateway Arch...

with the Mighty Mississippi River before them.  My timing seemed to be perfect as this riverboat passed under the bridge just as a pleasure boat approached.  Only my sister--a dog lover with a current total of 6 Cavalier spaniels plus one Cairn terrier--would point out there was a dog on the motorboat!

It is hard to gauge just how tall the Gateway Arch is, from a distance.

Got a better idea now?

See those tiny windows?  The view from 630 feet up is pretty incredible.  Going up inside the Arch is an adventure in itself--Kathy took me on that ride many years ago, the first time I visited St. Louis.

Lewis and Clark, the well known western explorers, captured in bronze on the banks.

Another bit of timing luck, as a train crossed my scene as I shot this stone arch bridge. Finally we turned away from these interesting scenes for many miles of other views through two states...

Endless farmlands stretching out through Illinois and Indiana...

...interspersed with forests leafing out in every shade of spring green.

These 80 foot trees were luscious to stand beneath at a roadside rest stop.  Kentucky brought some hills and rocks and wound through downtown Louisville along the Ohio River.  No pics of that, since it was my turn to drive.  Finally, long after dark, we arrived at Cousin Florence's house in Mason, Ohio and dug into the wonderful homemade chicken cacciatore she had made, while catching up with her and our mom, and talking about the next day's adventures.  Part II to follow! 

One Word Wednesday

Inspiration!

IQF Adventure with Kathy

This is a story without photos, sorry!

My sister Kathy and I went to the Cincinnati International Quilt Festival on Friday, as I mentioned last post.  The adventure began when we spent some time getting lost downtown before finally locating the Duke Energy Center.  We were on a four lane wide, one-way street, getting ready to turn right into a parking structure.  There was a nice little red car in front of us.  The driver had to open her door and step out to take the ticket from the automated machine.  She then got in and tried to move her car forward but was at an odd angle and was going to go up over the curb.  She got out and said she didn't know how to fix that.  Kathy put on her emergency flashers, got out to direct the lady in backing up and the lady tried but still couldn't turn into the driveway.  She was afraid to go over the curb.  She ended up handing her keys to Kathy to have her pull the car forward!  Meanwhile, I'm sweating bullets in the passenger seat of our vehicle, but luckily no one (and no police) came up behind us.  We proceeded up a few levels for an empty parking spot and the lady began to park right beside us. She got out and had Kathy help again by taking the keys and pulling her car into the narrow parking spot next  to a cement pillar, joking that she would need to find us again when it was time to leave.

The gal explained to Kathy and me that she was not a quilter, but her friend had written a book and was signing it in a booth, but she only knew the booth number and not how to get to it.  Kathy, in typical fashion, told the lady that we would take her there.  We introduced ourselves and learned her name was Donna, as we headed over the skywalk to the building, chatting and laughing all the while.  Inside the convention center, we could look down onto the Festival floor, but of course the booth we were looking for was directly beneath the skywalk.

Kathy and I went to buy tickets and look for open classes and got separated from Donna, who was using the facilities, but we met up with her again at the show entrance  We headed to the booth for Back Door Quilts, where we met her friend Brian Haggard signing his book, Crazy-Quilted Memories.  Brian turned out to be a really fun guy, an interior decorator and muralist in addition to book author.  Kathy, in her usual exuberant way, told how we came to be at his booth, asked a lot of questions, bragged on my blog, and we had a great time hearing stories behind his photo transferred family pictures and the lovely embroidery and embellishments he used.  I bought a book which he signed beautifully with an illustration.  We finally made our goodbyes and Kathy gave a literal shout-out of "This is the coolest book I've ever seen!", to entice the masses to come look.  Brian thanked us for "helping his crazy friend" Donna, which of course got a laugh.  We did not see Donna again and when we left, after 7 pm, her car was gone.  There did not appear to be any red paint scraped off onto the concrete pillar so we assumed she did just fine backing out :)

The postscript to this story was Saturday, at the end of a long and fun day of Festivaling, Kathy and I cruised by the Back Door Quilts booth on our way out, to take a look at Brian's samples hanging there. The booth right next door was selling felt balls and as we were looking over those,  got talking to the booth vendor.   Once again Kathy was her exuberant self and the vendor said, "Oh, you were here yesterday at the book signing, right?"  I had to laugh--I have a memorable sister!

Greetings from Cincinnati

Aside from an unexpected quarter mile-plus hike to change planes in Las Vegas, my flight to St Louis on Wednesday was just fine.  I even put some stitches into my hand quilting project.  Yesterday my sister Kathy did most of the driving from her house in St. Louis to Cincinnati, taking the 64 highway and coming up through Louisville, giving me a five states in one day trip total as we went from Missouri to Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.  We had the usual road trip fun, unfortunately including Kathy realizing two hours into the trip that she forgot her phone at home.   This afternoon we went to the International Quilt Festival to take in the vendors and also to see if there were any classes still open.  We signed up for a class tomorrow, getting the last two spots for a silk scarf dye-painting adventure from 9-12.  Then we'll meet up with Mom and the hostess with the mostest, Cousin Florence, to go through the quilt exhibits together.  No photos to share, since I left my camera cord at home, but I have been snapping away!  It's lovely to be away from the work/home routine and relax.  Updates on our adventures soon...

Tuesday's Orts

Tuesday's Orts--bits and scraps of thoughts and happenings of my week that land here.

• You'd think I would be packed already for my trip tomorrow.  Or at least have my clothes washed, but you'd be mistaken.  Especially since we are completely out of laundry soap when I just checked this morning.  Sigh.
• My mom came over and tried out the new laminate floors in her stocking feet.  She could slide pretty far!
• We had a confused and probably homeless woman come into our office the other day, saying someone told her to meet an attorney about her money problems (we are a medical office).  She could not remember anyone's phone number or names to call and pick her up, but was clean and seemed generally okay.  She went in and out of the waiting room a few times and I looked at her ID and folder of papers from her bank, trying to figure out how to help her.  She thought she heard her daughter's voice in the office, and said she has been looking for them. Eventually we called the police to come help her.  She told the officer that I had taken her ID, but I told him that I looked at it and handed it back to her and she put it in her wallet.  The officer talked to her for some time but she was no danger to herself or others so there wasn't much he could do.  Finally, he let her simply walk away.  I was half afraid she would turn up again the next day but there has been no sign of her.  Sad!
• Traffic Rant:  People who don't use turn signals.  Especially those who are turning into driveways with a line of cars behind them, all of us gnashing our teeth at their thoughtlessness. 
• The 364 eggs put out for the Easter egg hunt were all plastic, thankfully, so no danger of rotting egg smell of those that were missed.   A few Pixie sticks were still on our porch in the afternoon before our very shy neighbor boy came looking. But this is what some of the boys looked like at 9:00 a.m. when the signal to start was given:

They took off like a shot!

Design Wall Monday--April 9, 2012

It was great to get back to some piecing after finishing the quilting on the Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt.  Some fabric for the Cocoa Baskets quilt has been lying on the cutting table for weeks, so that was the first task. 

I will most likely machine applique these to the backgrounds but for now am simply cutting pieces large enough for the basket and handle templates.

Two more Churn Dash and two more 9 patches added to the total, with more to come.  I'll get the Basket blocks made and lay out all the different blocks before cutting for the remaning blocks.  Loving these so far!See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

After the Egg Hunt, Let The Binding Begin

Living on a cul de sac for the past 20 years means we know our neighbors and have watched them all play on the street constantly.  For the past several years our neighborhood organizer extraordinaire has set up an egg hunt, hiding eggs on every yard and of course making some firm rules.  The kids love it.  Here they are all lined up at the end of the cul de sac, ready for the word GO.

The bigger kids ran immediately for farther houses but the little ones stayed close to mom or dad.

The dad in this case grew up on the block and is now bringing his girls to Grandma's for the Egg Hunt.  Aren't they sweet in their little dresses and Mary Janes?   It was fun to watch the kids as they raced and searched the block.  After going inside and having breakfast I got back to my sewing machine, ready for piecing.

It seems I'd nearly forgotten my word for the year, which is FOCUS. Being easily distractible is a hazard of the modern age, I fear. However, last night I did strap myself into my sewing chair and knock out that last corner of the quilting on my brother's quilt in less than an hour. Today the binding was cut, assembled and pressed. 

I must make a clarification on my last post--this is a coffee themed quilt, but some of the quilted coffee beans look more like potatoes, hence my brother's comment that he likes potatoes.  Sorry for the bit of confusion!   The binding will get attached after I return from vacation--I'm flying off Wednesday to meet up with my sister in St. Louis for our road trip to Cincinnati and the International Quilt Festival.  Mom will meet us there and we'll stay with our cousin Florence again.  So excited!