I am back at least for today. Life is busy with Doctor appointments and trying to keep up with the dying garden. It is almost winter here in the mid-west. We have had a beautiful fall in terms of color and even temperatures though while I was in Houston for quilt festival there was a night when those temps went down to 22*. What's with that? I would share the pictures from my back porch, as well as pictures of some of my favorite festival quilts, however my camera and my computer are not speaking. So, I will have to get a card reader. I do have some beautiful pictures of incredibly beautiful quilts.
Okay, I have procrastinated enough. First of all I had a wonderful time at festival made possible by my daughter Kelly and her husband John, along with my husband who was adamant that I go. Some of you may be aware of a project promoted by Elly Sienkiewicz. A dozen groups from all over the United States and Canada each made beautiful applique quilts. Not just any applique quilts, but Baltimore quilts. It takes your breath away just to see them. The one made by my TAS group is wonderful creation, made-up entirely of original cut work designs honoring Elly and her family. I went back several times over the week and each time I found new elements in those small quilts.
Late in the week my husbands cousin Gladys from LA. met me to once again catch up and see the exhibits together. We headed over to the Baltimore exhibit to look at the quilts and exclaim over design and beautiful work. Gladys is a quilter as well and she was really interested in the details. We walked around and our discussion was noticed by several other viewers and pretty soon we were having a discussion that included about twenty. Over and over I was asked why the names of the quilt artists were not on the signs. I had been wondering that myself and simply did not have an answer. We even heard one person tell her friend that she did not know Elly was so prolific!
The next night many of the quilt makers attended a lovely meal at Massa's restaurant in Houston. It was fun catching up with old friends and hearing once again a program by Kathy Tennyson, a really prolific Baltimore applique quilt maker. She has made at least six album quilts, each one more beautiful than the last. Lovely. However once again while the project was talked about, the opportunity to introduce the women involved was lost. I had hoped that each groups members would be asked to stand so we could honor them. Not to be.
Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts is a book profiling these twelve quilts and C&T did name all the quilters. And at the risk of sounding like a whiner and trust me, even I think I am whining, the names are in the smallest font I have ever seen and while the rest of the book has super black type, these names are so light it is really difficult to read!
I am almost finished. I just want everyone to know that I really enjoyed my time on the quilts. My group really came together as friends and our skills as a group have grown expedentually. My only wish would be that " Anonymous is a Woman" would go back where she came from. Happy quilting my friends.
Monday, November 15, 2010
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2 comments:
Totally agree with you, Nadine!!! This was not Elly's exhibit, but belonged to all the wonderful ladies who worked on those quilts and who should have been honored both in Houston and in the book. I did enjoy visiting the quilts with you on Wednesday night and learning a lot of the background of them...a lovely experience.
Pam Fisher
Nadine, you certainly have lots of company. So many of us commented on the fact that the "friends" were not named. It was a blatant omission. The individual quilters should be recognized!!!
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