Quilting or Piecing?

I managed to make it to the Three Rivers Quilt Show on Saturday with a friend, and the new place on Hot Metal Street where they now hold their shows is a vast improvement over the fire hall it used to be in. The lighting is superb, the space is unlimited and there is room for quilts, large and small, vendors, food and a flea market all in the same building. Kudos to you, Three Rivers, for choosing such a great place. This is their second year there, and it was a beautiful show. I noticed a lot of big quilts that were hand quilted this year (hand-quilted quilts seem to appear in a larger quantity every few years, probably when they're finished being quilted).

Despite an increasing number of people I read about on the Machine Quilting and Hinterberg lists I read, there seemed to always be two different people listed as The Piecer and The Quilter on most of the quilts. It seems like there are so few quilts that are made by one person. I read a big debate awhile ago about the questions: Are you a Quilter if you never quilt? Is piecing tops the same thing? Can you call yourself a quilter if you only piece? And, do you take credit for quilting the quilt when you show it off to others? Hmmm......

I had fun shopping, using the opportunity to buy some of the Moda jelly rolls and charm packs. My friend was telling me you can make a project with these with no waste involved and it uses up every bit of fabric. That'll be the day when I use up every bit of my fabric. We took the opportunity to walk a bit after the show to the renovated South Side to have lunch. It was a fun day.

My new sewing room goal is to get rid of the fabrics I don't like anymore.

Dreaming the dream

You may have seen the big story on the news yesterday about Susan Boyle, the 47 year old woman who stunned the judges, including Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan on 'Britain's Got Talent' TV show, when she sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Les Miserables." I've watched it myself about 8 times now, and am pondering what it is that makes it such a wonderful story. In case you missed the video, you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luRmM1J1sfg
The charm of the story is in her unassuming attitude, seeing her dressed up in what appears to be a "Sunday best" outfit, only wanting to wow the audience, and knowing that she shattered everyone's expectations. Knowing she made a promise to her mother to make something of her life, and here she is - a worldwide overnight sensation! Watching the video is certainly aided by the song she chose, as the audience cheers and the crescendos in the music build to the standing ovation as she reaches for the highest note in the song. Honestly, it's one of the best "feel good" stories I've seen in a long time. It's certainly making me cry everytime I watch it and I keep watching it over and over again. I read that on Easter Sunday, her church gave her a standing ovation because they are so proud of her. What a moment - to live the dream.

Rainy days and Fridays

Well, it's been an interesting week for me. A week ago Monday, I went the the doctor, had a high cholesterol reading (again, as usual for me) and a high blood pressure for the first time ever. I had taken a vitamin for a few days that had a caffeine like effect on me and felt like my heart was racing. By Thursday, the combination of these factors had me combining all my symptoms and focusing solely on the racing heart I was feeling. I woke Mark up Friday morning and told him we should go to the hospital, I was just not feeling right. So after EKG's which were normal, and blood tests which were normal, and 2 doses of Delaudin and 3 doses of Nitro-glycerin, they admitted me to the hospital for a stress test on Friday. The good news is I passed the stress test - everything was normal - and they sent me home. On Monday, I had an Electron Beam CT scan scheduled from my cardiologist, which tests for calcium in the heart. According to my doctor, the calcium can be an indicator of plaque in your arteries. They called yesterday and told me that I had ZERO calcium, which is great news for me. I can't tell you how relieved I feel. I've been given a clean bill of health (for the moment) and have a second chance to get it right. I can't control the hereditary aspect of my cholesterol, but I can control what I do today. That means that exercise HAS to become a priority for me. Thirty minutes of my day is not too much to spend making myself healthier.

I think I finally figured out how the people in the quilting magazine (see post in August of 08 about baby fabric and Cathedral windows) made that two color cathedral window baby quilt. They must have split the square in half diagonally and sewn two different colors together, then folded it into a cathedral window square. As one who has folded many a CW square, that must make it awfully uneven and stretchy, which is terrible for folding an even square. I'm planning to try it this weekend, and I'll let you know if it works.

I'll be dying Easter eggs tomorrow. I'm hoping for warm weather this weekend and a nice Easter Sunday. I have so many memories of Easter outfits and cute little hats and purses. Oh, and gloves - we actually wore little white gloves on Easter Sunday.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Spring is here, or is it?

My sisters and I spent the day yesterday in Meyersdale at their 62nd Meyersdale Maple Festival. It was a short bus ride (about 1.5 hrs) but we got a chance to catch up on what has been going on in our lives. When we arrived, we had a pancake and sausage breakfast (I skipped the sausage) and found that pancakes with real maple syrup taste delicious. We watched a play called "The Legend of the Magic Water" which was about the Monongahela people who first discovered the maple syrup in this area. They told us that Kate Smith, the singer, first put them on the map 62 years ago, by declaring Meyersdale Maple Syrup the best in a contest she had on the radio. We watched a real old fashioned parade that featured the original fife and drum corp, established in 1782, and had the First Navy Seal in America as a guest of honor on the dais. One of the fireman in the parade stopped his truck and got out to ask his girl to marry him along the parade route (she said yes). We stopped for dinner on the way home and in general, had a fun day.

I hate this in-between weather. I mean the in-between winter and spring weather, when you can't figure out what coat to wear when you go out in the morning because it's cold and then the afternoon is really warm, or vice-versa. You leave the house in the morning dressed in heavier clothes and a winter coat. By afternoon, it's 70 degrees and you feel like a fashion faux pas in your dark colors and winter wear. I'm also torn between the winter and summer color regime we all followed when we were kids. You know what I mean. You didn't wear white - ever - until Easter. Then, no matter how cold it was, you'd break out the white shoes, white purse, white hat, white dress and brave it all on Easter morning to look like springtime. Luckily my children don't have this color hangup about their clothes. They used to wear shorts to school the first day they knew it might be over 60 degrees outside. They opt for no coat most of the time - I had to insist that if the temperature was 30 outside they had to take a winter coat. It's such a conundrum for me.

I hope you are enjoying looking at my photos on Imagekind. I have many more photos to post, but I'm testing the waters with one gallery to start with.

Have a great day! Hope for spring today!

Good News!

I've finally uploaded some of my photos to a web site called Imagekind, so you can see them and purchase them. At Imagekind you can also purchase mats and frames to compliment your photo. My url is: http://sal_16066.imagekind.com/ or you can just click on the icon to the left. On the Photos page, there will be a similar gallery of photos that you can click to view my work.

I'm very excited to show off some of my favorite photos. Enjoy!

Answers to the Quiz

Here they are, as promised, from the website of the National Women's History Project - the answers to yesterday's quiz. I'm sorry to say I didn't get very many of them right myself. I wonder how many of these women knew how to quilt.

Answers

1. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955)
2. Toni Morrison (b. 1931)
3. Rosa Parks (b. 1920)
4. Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927)
5. Jane Addams (1860-1935)
6. Nancy Lopez (b. 1957)
7. Rita Dove (b. 1952)
8. Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
9. Alice Paul (1885-1977)
10. Shirley Chisholm (b. 1924)
11. Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
12. March Fong Eu (b. 1929)
13. Nellie Bly (1867-1922), real name Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman
14. Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910)
15. Sojourner Truth (C. 1797-1883)
16. 1923
17. Queen Liliuokalani (1838-1917)
18. Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643)
19. Sarah Winnemucca (1844-1891)
20. Charlie Parkhurst
21. Romana Bañuelos (b. 1925)
22. Sacajawea (c. 1786-1812)
23. Katherine Graham (b. 1917-2001)
24. 1909, New York City
25. 1974
26. Dolores Huerta (b. 1930)
27. 1976
28. Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997)
29. Harriet Tubman (c. 1820-1913)
30. Donaldina Cameron (1869-1968)
31. Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)

Happy National Quilting Day!

Did you know it was National Quilting Day? Well, quilt away. I just found the coolest thing. You can find the photo at the HappyCottageQuilter blog under the heading "Dreamin.." Can you believe it - it's a quilted car cover!!

March is also Women's History Month. I am presently reading the book "Not for Ourselves Alone," which was also a TV special by Ken Burns. It's about Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and their pioneering fight for women to achieve equal rights and the right to vote. Ken Burns mentions in the book that he was surprised how many people he asked didn't know anything about these women except to say Susan B. Anthony was on some coin, and they didn't even know why.

I grew up in the 70's when the fight was on for the Equal Rights Amendment, and when I did book reports in high school, they were always on a leader in women's rights. I feel like I've always known who these women are. So, I experimented and asked each of my sons, separately, if they knew either of these women. I'm sad to admit they had the same answer. They knew Susan B. was on a coin, but didn't know why, and didn't know who Elizabeth Cady Stanton was. When I say sad, I mean because I haven't done my job as a believer in women's rights if I haven't taught my sons about these women.

So I decided that as I read the book, I'm going to insert little tidbits here and there about women. In the meantime, You can read President Obama's Presidential Proclamation on "Women taking the lead in Saving Our Planet" at the National Women's History Project website.

I'm posting this quiz from their website also. I'll post the answers tomorrow. Their slogan is "Our History is Our Strength." I love that.

Test Your Knowledge of Women's History

1. Who founded Bethune-Cookman College, established the National Council of Negro Women, and served as an advisor on minority affairs to President Franklin D. Roosevelt?

2. What woman was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. ?

3. What Black woman refused to give up her seat to a White man, in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, thus sparking the civil rights movement of the following decade?

4. Who was the first woman to run for President of the United States (1872)?

5. Who opened up social work as a profession for women, and also won the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize for her anti-war organizing work?

6. Which Mexican-American woman has repeatedly been the leading money winner in the Ladies Professional Golf Association?

7. Who was the first woman Poet Laureate of the United States?

8. Who was the first “First Lady” to have developed her own political and media identity?

9. Who wrote the first version of the Equal Rights Amendment, in 1923?

10. Who was the first Black woman elected to Congress?

11. What leading suffragist was arrested and convicted of attempting to vote in the 1872 election?

12. Who was the first Chinese-American woman ever elected to hold a statewide office in the United States?

13. What journalist traveled around the world in 72 days in 1890?

14. What woman was turned down by 29 medical schools before being accepted as a student, graduated at the head of her class, and became the first licensed woman doctor in the U.S.?

15. What former slave was a powerful speaker for the rights of women and Black people?

16. When was the Equal Rights Amendment first introduced into Congress?

17. Who was the last queen of the Hawaiian Islands, deposed because American business interests wanted to annex Hawaii to the U.S.?

18. Which woman was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for holding religious discussion meetings in her home?

19. Who spoke out for the advancement of American Indians’ rights from speaker’s platforms nationwide and before Congressional committees in the 1880s?

20. Who drove a stagecoach across the roughest part of the West without anyone knowing until she died that she was a woman?

21. Who was the first Hispanic woman to serve as U.S. Treasurer?

22. Who was the Shoshone Indian woman who served as guide and interpreter on the Lewis and Clark expedition?

23. Who was Chair of the Board and publisher of The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, and also oversaw six broadcasting stations?

24. About 20,000 women shirtwaist workers staged a strike for better working conditions. Their action was called the “Uprising of the 20,000.” When and where did his strike occur?

25. When did officials of Little League Baseball announce that they would “defer to the changing social climate” and let girls play on their teams?

26. As vice president of the United Farm Workers, what woman has been vital in speaking for civil and economic rights for farm workers throughout the U.S.?

27. When did Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 go into effect, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded school programs and activities?

28. What woman was invited to teach nuclear physics at Princeton University, even though no female students were allowed to study there?

29. What woman served as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, freeing hundreds of southern slaves and leading them to safety in the North? A $40,000 reward was offered for her capture.

30. What woman is credited with helping free more than 2,000 Chinese women and children smuggled into San Francisco to be sold as slaves?

31. Who was the first African-American woman poet to have her works published?