New England Quilt Museum
Part of the crazy week just past was a road trip to Lowell, Massachusetts, to the New England Quilt Museum. I was really floored and honored when the state-wide Pine Tree Quilt Guild asked me to submit my quilt Bijagos Warrior to be the guild’s entry into the juried exhibit, The Best of New England Quilt Guilds. Well, he got juried in! Phew! After them asking me, such a newcomer to the state, I was really thrilled he made it into the show.
With the materials to send in the quilt, was an invitation….would anyone like to present a “Brown Bag Lunch” on either March 2 or February 2 in conjunction with the exhibit. Seeing a great opportunity to get my name out there and just have fun, I called immediately, they booked me, and I planned a road trip. Cheri Tamm Raymond, the former manager (last day was last Friday!) of the local quilt shop (a tiny place) and her grown daughter Meg and I planned a road trip, and prayed it didn’t snow. Well, it didn’t, and did we have fun. Cheri took this picture of me standing next to my quilt (taken with permission of the museum director…normally you can’t take pics!):
After that, we popped into Friends Fabric Art in Lowell…..Cheri is mostly a traditional quilter (was Professional Quilter’s Teacher of the Year in 1988, and boy was I nervous the first time I taught in the shop with her there, but she has been SOOOOO encouraging and helpful and supportive…it’s wonderful!), but I have high hopes of enticing her to the art side, at least sometimes, as she bought a wonderful assortment of Stef Francis hand-dyed silk cocoons and ribbons and trims.
Then we drove north to Portsmouth, to visit Portsmouth Fabrics. Oh WOW….I have never, ever seen so many batiks on one place other than the Bali Fabrics Warehouse (yeah…the company warehouse). AND they had velvets, and batik rayons, and silks…oh my! I was relatively restrained in my purchases, but happy to meet the owner, Gretchen, who bought some of my patterns for the shop. At her request I shared a few of my quilts, and left my teaching brochure….crossing my fingers!
So that was that….now, to crash for the night and do more posts soon!